FOREIGN AND COMMONWEALTH AFFAIRS

Burma

David Ward: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 16 December 2013, Official Report, column 417W, on Burma, when representatives of his Department had discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi on visiting places in Burma where anti-Muslim violence has taken place; and who took part in those meetings.

Hugo Swire: The British embassy in Rangoon has had a number of discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi about visits to places where anti-Muslim violence has taken place—for example following the British ambassador's visit to Meiktila in March 2013 and following embassy visits to Rakhine over the course of 2012-13.
	We have discussed the wider issue of anti-Muslim violence with Daw Aung San Suu Kyi on numerous occasions over the past year, both at ministerial and official levels. Most recently, I discussed the situation in Rakhine with her on 28 January and staff from the British embassy in Rangoon discussed the situation in Rakhine with her on 23 January.
	We have not had recent discussions with Aung San Suu Kyi regarding her own visits to places where anti-Muslim violence has taken place.

Iran

Neil Parish: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what discussions he had with the (a) Prime Minister and (b) Minister for Trade and Investment on the resolution on the human rights situation in the Islamic Republic of Iran passed by the UN General Assembly on 18 December 2013; and if he will make a statement.

Hugh Robertson: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), regularly discusses foreign policy issues with his ministerial colleagues and has made human rights one of the UK's foreign policy priorities. I made a statement on 19 December that welcomed the adoption of the resolution on human rights in Iran at the UN General Assembly and called on the Iranian Government to take concrete action to address Iran's poor record. The UK regularly speaks out about human rights abuses in Iran and will continue to do so.

Members: Correspondence

Gerald Kaufman: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs when he intends to reply to the letter to him dated 23 December 2013 from the right hon. Member for Manchester, Gorton with regard to Elizabeth Wheelan.

David Lidington: The Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), responded to the right hon. Member on 1 February 2014.

Nuclear Weapons

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2014, Official Report, column 278W, on nuclear weapons, by what date the House will be informed of the Government's intention on attendance at the conference in Mexico on the humanitarian impact of nuclear weapons.

Hugh Robertson: The Government is considering whether to attend the Conference. A decision will be made shortly, and communicated to the House.

Saudi Arabia

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what representations he has made to his Saudi counterpart on the persecution of Christians in that country and the use of the death penalty on those who convert to Christianity in Saudi Arabia.

Hugh Robertson: We raise our concerns about all human rights issues, including the death penalty and Freedom of Religion or Belief, with the Government of Saudi Arabia.
	While there are no official statistics issued by the Government of Saudi Arabia, there are no reports for the death penalty being applied in recent times for conversion to Christianity.

SCOTLAND

Prisoner Transfers

Tom Greatrex: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Justice on the operation of prisoner transfers between England and Scotland.

Alistair Carmichael: I have not discussed the operation of prisoner transfers between England and Scotland with the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice, the right hon. Member for Epsom and Ewell (Chris Grayling).
	I am aware however that the hon. Member secured an adjournment debate on 30 January on the issue and the impact it has had on one of his constituents. I have seen the Hansard of that debate and am glad the Under-Secretary of State for Justice, the hon. Member for Kenilworth and Southam (Jeremy Wright), was able to deal so comprehensively with the hon. Member’s concerns.

Scottish Independence

Glyn Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what discussions he has had with the First Minister of Wales on the potential effect of a vote for Scottish independence.

Alistair Carmichael: I have not had any discussions with the First Minister for Wales regarding the effect of a yes vote in September, but I know that he shares my view that Scotland is better off in the UK, and the UK is better off with Scotland in it.
	It is vitally important that voices from all parts of the UK participate in this debate and I welcome the Welsh First Minister’s contribution.

Conditions of Employment

Ann McKechin: To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland what estimate he has made of the number of people in Scotland currently employed on zero-hours contracts.

David Mundell: There are no reliable estimates of the number of individuals employed on zero hour contracts in Scotland given that there is no legal definition of zero hour contracts.

WALES

Standard Spending Assessments

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what changes have been made to the Welsh block grant in each year of the current Parliament in (a) real and (b) absolute terms.

David Jones: The Welsh Government's budget has been largely insulated from the full extent of the reductions faced by many UK Government Departments because of the protection we have placed on the Health and Education budgets. In total, the Welsh Government's budget has increased by £737 million since the spending review 2010. Changes made to the block grant in each year of the Government's spending plans in (a) real and (b) absolute terms are included in the following table:
	
		
			  (a) Percentage change real (b) Percentage change absolute £ million 
			 2011-12 — — 14,866 
			 2012-13 -1.8 -0.1 14,854 
			 2013-14 -0.2 +1.8 15,121 
			 2014-15 -1.9 +0.2 15,148 
			 2015-16 -1.3 +0.2 15,178

Taxation

Owen Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Wales what recent discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer about publication of a Welsh taxes forecast.

David Jones: The Chancellor of the Exchequer and I have agreed that the Government will formally approach the Office for Budget Responsibility to ask it to make forecasts of Welsh tax revenues. We confirmed this in the Government's response to the Silk Commission's Part I report, and will do so in due course as part of our implementation of the Commission's recommendations.

HOME DEPARTMENT

Drugs: Rehabilitation

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department how much funding her Department has provided for drug-intervention projects provided by police forces in each of the last five years; and what assessment she has made of levels of such spending since the introduction of police and crime commissioners.

Damian Green: holding answer 3 February 2014
	Home Office funding to local areas for drug interventions between 2009 and 2014 is provided in the table. Between 2009 and 2013 the Home Office provided funding as part of the Drug Interventions Programme (DIP) direct to police forces for the identification and testing of drug misusing offenders (column A). Over the same period funding was also provided to local Criminal Justice Integrated Teams for the assessment and referral of drug misusing offenders into treatment and support (column B).
	During April 2009 to December 2013 the Home Office also paid a centrally procured drug testing supplier around £12 million for drug testing equipment and services used by police forces:
	Since the introduction of Police and Crime Commissioners, there has been no assessment of the levels of spending on drug intervention projects. Allocation of resources within each police force is a matter for the chief officer and the Police and Crime Commissioner.
	
		
			 Table showing Home Office grant expenditure over the past five years made to police forces and Criminal Justice Integrated teams for the purpose of drug interventions 
			 £ million 
			  A B 
			  Police Force DIP Funding Criminal Justice Integrated Teams 
			 2009-10 23.3 116.3 
			 2010-11 22.6 108.7 
			 2011-121 19.0 40.2 (60-DH) 
			 2012-131 18.0 37.0 (60-DH) 
			 2013-142 — — 
			 1 Funding grants for the Criminal Justice Integrated Teams (CJIT) were paid jointly by the Home Office and Department of Health to areas in England for 2011-12 and 2012-13. 2 From 1 April 2013 the Drug Interventions Programme ceased to operate.

Human Trafficking

Paul Blomfield: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2014, Official Report, column 234W, on human trafficking, how many (a) male and (b) female identified victims of human trafficking have received wider support from local authorities and other mainstream support providers once the period in funded support has ended to date;
	(2)  pursuant to the answer of 8 January 2014, Official Report, column 234W, how many identified (a) male and (b) female victims of human trafficking have received wider support from local authorities and other mainstream support providers once the period in funded support had ended in (i) 2010, (ii) 2011 and (iii) 2012.

James Brokenshire: Data on wider support provided by local authorities and other providers to victims of human trafficking is not collected centrally.

Immigrants: Detainees

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what steps her Department is taking to ensure that detainees at immigration removal centres are treated well and are not subject to abuse.

Mark Harper: All immigration removal centres are subject to the Detention Centre Rules 2001, which came into force on 2 April 2001 and these make provision for the regulation and management of removal centres. The rules are supported by operating standards and detention services orders.
	Each centre has a Home Office immigration enforcement manager and team to monitor ongoing service provision and to maintain effective and meaningful contact with detainees.
	Independent assessment of centres is provided in the inspection reports of Her Majesty's Chief Inspector of Prisons and the annual reports of the Independent Monitoring Boards. Recommendations resulting from these reports are translated into service improvement plans which are monitored by a compliance and monitoring team within Detention Operations. We are committed to using these plans to make improvements across our estate for all detainees in our care.
	A comprehensive complaints system is in place at all centres and detainees have the ability to raise complaints both anonymously or in person and in confidence to the Independent Monitoring Boards who in turn can escalate complaints on behalf of detainees. Detainees who are not satisfied with the way in which their complaint has been handled may ask for it to be independently reviewed by the prisons and probation ombudsman.

Offences Against Children: Internet

Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department what assessment she has made of the suitability of existing regulations on money transfer networks for preventing money leaving the UK to fund on-demand online child abuse; and what plans she has to bring forward legislative proposals to amend these regulations in line with the particular threat associated with payments to certain countries.

Damian Green: holding answer 4 February 2014
	At the internet safety summit on 18 November Britain and the US created a new taskforce to work with industry to counter online child sexual exploitation.
	The taskforce agreed a number of challenges that its Industry Solutions Group should consider, including the live streaming of child sexual abuse imagery over the internet. The Prime Minister also made clear that he would consider whether further powers were needed for the police and National Crime Agency to tackle the online abuse of children.

Passports

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will take steps to protect members of the public who go online to apply for or renew a British passport and are misled into using a non-government internet website which charges a fee and takes no responsibility for the outcome of the application.

Mark Harper: The website www.gov.uk is the only provider of the British passport and passport applicants should use the official Government website.
	All third party sites stating that they are offering passport services are required to carry a clear disclaimer that they are not an official passport site or affiliated in any way to Her Majesty's Passport Office. The Government Digital Service is leading a cross-Government exercise with organisations such as the Office of Fair Trading, the Advertising Standards Authority, search engine providers and various trading standard bodies to curtail the activity of websites that advertise their services in misleading ways, using existing consumer protection legislation.
	Ministers are planning to meet with Google early this year to discuss its enforcement of its own terms and conditions for advertising on its search results pages.
	Where Government has become aware of websites which make misleading claims in their advertising it has brought these complaints to the attention of the Advertising Standards Authority.
	Her Majesty Passport Office also continues to work with the Association of British Travel Agents to raise public awareness of third party websites.

Pay

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by (i) her Department, (ii) agencies of her Department and (iii) contractors of her Department are paid less than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation as a living wage.

James Brokenshire: There are no members of staff directly employed in the Home Office or its agencies who are paid less than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation as a living wage.
	The Home Office does not keep information on the level of pay of staff employed by organisations contracted to provide services within the Home Office.

Pay

Michael McCann: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department 
	(1)  what effect the changes in pensions contributions have had on take-home pay of officials at HEO and equivalent grades in her Department compared with May 2010;
	(2)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at Grade 7 and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(3)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at AO, LO2 and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(4)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at AA and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(5)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at EO, LO1 and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(6)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at SEO and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(7)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at SEO and equivalent grades in her Department compared to May 2010;
	(8)  what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials at senior Civil Service grade in her Department compared with May 2010.

James Brokenshire: Lord Hutton outlined in his report the strong case for changing public sector pensions, saying in his report “these costs have generally fallen to the taxpayer”. The Commission reached the conclusion that:
	“If the Government wishes to make savings in the short-term it will be more effective to increase member contributions rather than alter the benefit structure.”
	Contributions were increased in April 2012, April 2013 and will be increased again in April 2014, The increases were tiered by salary, so that higher earners pay a larger percentage point increase than lower earners. A number of protections were introduced alongside the contribution increases, including:
	Those earning less than £15,000 (full-time equivalent rate) will pay nothing extra;
	Those earning up to £21,000 (full-time equivalent) will pay no more than 0.6% of pay extra in 2012-13 (and no more than 1.5% of pay extra in total by 2014-15).
	The following table sets out the pay ranges for staff by grade as they stand now and as at May 2010.
	Cabinet Office's answer on 4 February 2014, Official Report, columns 214-5W, provides information about how the take home pay of those with different levels of salaries is affected by the pension contribution increases.
	
		
			 Home Office: May 2010 national pay ranges 
			 £ 
			 Grade Minimum Maximum 
			 AA 14,043 14,774 
			 AO 15,386 17,377 
			 EO 20,235 23,802 
			 HEO 25,297 29,757 
			 SEO 32,602 37,964 
			 Grade 7 44,656 55,264 
			 SCS Pay Band 1 58,200 117,800 
			 SCS Pay Band 2 82,900 162,500 
			 SCS Pay Band 3 101,500 208,100 
		
	
	
		
			 Home Office: July 2013 national pay ranges 
			 £ 
			 Grade Minimum Maximum 
			 AA 15,753 15,753 
			 AO 18,956 18,956 
			 EO 22,770 26,209 
			 HEO 27,150 32,460 
			 SEO 34,108 39,446 
		
	
	
		
			 Grade 7 45,626 55,540 
			 SCS Pay Band 1 60,000 117,800 
			 SCS Pay Band 2 84,000 162,500 
			 SCS Pay Band 3 103,000 208,100

Telecommunications Act 1984

David Davis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department whether she has given directions under Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 to the providers of telecommunications services for the acquisition of data in bulk relating to (a) thousands and (b) millions of people.

James Brokenshire: holding answer 4 February 2014
	Section 94 of the Telecommunications Act 1984 states that the Secretary of State may issue directions in the interests of national security and, as with the practice of previous Governments, we do not comment on security matters.

Unmanned Air Vehicles

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department if she will introduce a code or other guidance to regulate the collection, storage and use of data obtained by departments using unmanned aerial systems. [R]

Damian Green: There are no plans for further regulation of the use of unmanned aerial vehicles for surveillance purposes. Existing regulation and guidance includes the surveillance camera code of practice issued under the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012. The code provides a framework of good practice for surveillance camera operators and sets out obligations arising from other legislation, including those for the processing of personal data under the Data Protection Act 1998.

TRANSPORT

Apprentices

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what discussions he has had with ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the potential effect of the Deregulation Bill on the (a) standardisation and (b) design of apprenticeships in the (i) rail engineering, (ii) offshore oil and gas and (iii) maritime industries.

Stephen Hammond: The Secretary of State for Transport has not had a specific discussion with ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills on the potential effect of the Deregulation Bill on apprenticeships.
	Maritime apprenticeships within the wider context of maritime training have been discussed at the maritime round tables that I chair and which the Minister for Business and Enterprise, my right hon. Friend the Member for Sevenoaks (Michael Fallon), attends. There will be a substantive item on maritime training, which will include apprenticeships, at the spring round table.

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what recent correspondence he has received on charges to access the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency phonelines.

Stephen Hammond: DVLA has not received any correspondence on charges to access the DVLA phone lines.

Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the income has been from calls to the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency phone lines in each year for which data is available.

Stephen Hammond: In 2009, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) moved all of its public facing telephone numbers to the 0300 range. Charges to 0300 numbers are determined by the customer’s service provider but are generally charged at geographical rates. The DVLA receives no income from these numbers.
	The DVLA operates three premium rate telephone numbers to provide information to the motor trade. These numbers are not intended for use by the general public. The revenue generated by these numbers in 2010-11 was £922,382, in 2011-12 the figure was £740,144 and £824,303 in 2012-13.

Driving Under Influence: Drugs

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps his Department plans to take to ensure that all healthcare professionals understand the new drug driving offence; and if he will make a statement

Robert Goodwill: I refer my right hon. Friend to my answer of 3 February 2014, Official Report, columns 7-8W.

Driving Under Influence: Drugs

James Paice: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what guidance she plans to give to police officers on the enforcement of the new drug driving offence; and if she will make a statement.

Robert Goodwill: The Department liaises regularly with National Roads Policing on the details of the new drug driving offence. We are confident that they understand the new offence and that the National Roads Policing lead will, jointly with the Crown Prosecution Service, be issuing an enforcement process for the use of operational officers at the appropriate time.

Driving: Licensing

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport how many complaints (a) his Department and (b) the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency have received about websites that charge an additional processing fee for making an application for a new or replacement driver's licence in the past 12 months.

Stephen Hammond: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA) began recording complaints about these websites on 1 March 2013 and has received 170 complaints since then. This is the total number of complaints received by the Department for Transport about websites which charge additional fees for driving licence applications.

Driving: Licensing

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Dudley North, Official Report, columns 385-6, on driving: licensing, how many new drivers have had their licence revoked by the DVLA in each year since 1997.

Stephen Hammond: The information requested is only available from 2010 onwards. Details of driving convictions prior to this will have been removed from the DVLA record on expiry of the endorsement-normally four years from the date of the offence. The following table shows the information requested.
	
		
			  Revocations 
			 2010 12,461 
			 2011 11,088 
			 2012 10,795 
			 2013 6,817 
			 Total 41,161

Motor Vehicles: Safety

Robert Flello: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what assessment he has made of the safety implications of quiet vehicles. [R]

Stephen Hammond: A study by Transport Research Laboratory for the Department in 2011 found no evidence that quiet vehicles, eg electric and hybrid-electric vehicles, represent a greater danger to other road users, including pedestrians, than conventional vehicles. None the less, the Government supported in December 2013 a new EU regulation to require additional sound from these vehicles as part of a wider packet of measures on vehicle noise emissions.

Parking: Fees and Charges

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer to the hon. Member for Warley, Official Report, column 307W, on parking: fees and charges, in which region the 27 companies which were suspended from requesting vehicle keeper details from the DVLA in 2013 are based.

Stephen Hammond: The 27 companies suspended had their addresses registered with Companies House in the following areas:
	London, Perth and Kinross, Ipswich, Watford, Manchester, Belfast, Guildford, Southampton, Horsham, Norwich, Amersham, Nottingham, Hertford, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, Southall, Bristol, Essex and Dunfermline.

Pensions

Michael McCann: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials of his Department at (a) AA, (b) AO and LO2, (c) EO and LO1, (d) HEO, (e) SEO, (f) 7 and (g) SCS grades and equivalents since May 2010.

Stephen Hammond: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given by the Minister for Civil Society, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd), on 4 February 2014, Official Report, columns 214-15W.

Railway Stations

Mary Creagh: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport pursuant to the answer of 23 October 2013, Official Report, column 190W, on railway stations, in which region are the 30 railway stations with the highest footfall which do not have step free access via lifts or ramps to all platforms.

Stephen Hammond: I would refer the hon. Member to my answer of 23 January 2014, Official Report, column 320W. The Office of Rail Regulation publish station footfall figures on their website and the Association of Train Operating Companies publish details of station accessibility.

Shipping

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport if he will make it his policy to increase the number of UK seafarers by increasing the number of UK-owned vessels registered under the UK flag.

Stephen Hammond: It is a Government priority to encourage quality shipping to be British registered and to develop the UK Ship Register by encouraging the owners of high quality ships to register them in the UK.
	The Government has also demonstrated its commitment to the promotion of seafaring as a career for people in the UK by increasing the amount of money available to train seafarers on UK registered ships by 25% to £15 million per annum.

Shipping

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport 
	(1)  if he will list the flags under which UK-owned ships over 500 gross tonnage are registered; how many ships are registered under each flag; and what proportion of the UK-owned fleet this represents in each case;
	(2)  if he will list the number of UK-owned ships over 500 tonnage that are registered under each of the (a) Marshall Islands, (b) Panamanian, (c) Liberian, (d) Hong Kong, (e) Singaporean, (f) Bahaman and (g) Maltese flags; and what proportion of the UK- owned fleet each represents;
	(3)  what the (a) number and (b) proportion of UK-owned ships is over gross 500 tonnage that are registered under (i) open and (ii) national flag registries.

Stephen Hammond: The Government does not collect information about ships on the shipping registers of other maritime administrations.

Shipping

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the (a) number and (b) proportion is of UK-owned ships over 500 gross tonnage that are registered under the UK flag.

Stephen Hammond: There are 789 vessels of over 500GT on the UK Ship Register. Of those, 524 (66%) are registered to an owner with an address in the United Kingdom.

Shipping: Apprentices

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what steps he is taking to increase the number of maritime apprenticeships; and when he last discussed maritime apprenticeships with his ministerial colleagues in the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills.

Stephen Hammond: The maritime sector is an important contributor to the UK economy and we want to continue to see new trainees entering the industry and being trained to the highest standards. We will promote the take up of maritime training through all routes at every opportunity. To help reverse the decline in UK seafarer numbers we have a number of policies in place including Support for Maritime Training where the budget has been recently been increased by 25% to £15 million, maritime apprenticeships and a training requirement linked to the UK's tonnage tax regime.
	There is continuous dialogue on all aspects of maritime skills policy, between industry and officials at Department for Transport (DFT), Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).
	Maritime training has been discussed in the wider context of growth and promotion of the maritime sector at the maritime round tables held during 2013 and a BIS Minister was present in those meetings. A substantial discussion on maritime training, including maritime apprenticeships, will take place at the spring maritime round table. Attendees at the meeting will include Ministers, industry and the seafarer unions.

PRIME MINISTER

Chiefs of Staff

David Davis: To ask the Prime Minister what discussions he has had with the Chief of the Defence Staff between 11 May 2010 and 31 May 2011.

David Cameron: I refer my right hon. Friend to the answer I gave to him on 17 January 2014, Official Report, column 725W.

Conferences

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Prime Minister how many international summits he attended in (a) 2010, (b) 2011 and (c) 2012; what the cost to the public purse was of his attendance at each such summit; and what his carbon footprint was in travelling to each such summit.

David Cameron: Details of ministerial overseas travel are published quarterly and are available on the
	www.gov.uk
	website.

India

Fabian Hamilton: To ask the Prime Minister if he will agree to meet leaders of the Sikh community when the investigation into the UK's alleged role in the planning of the attack on the Golden Temple, Amritsar is published.

David Cameron: The Minister responsible for relations with India, the Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office, my right hon. Friend the Member for East Devon (Mr Swire), and my noble Friend Baroness Warsi, the Minister for Faiths and Communities, met the Sikh community on 4 February 2014 and discussed the Cabinet Secretary's report, with them. We remain committed to a full and open dialogue with the British Sikh community on this and other issues of concern to them.

India

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Prime Minister 
	(1)  if he will set a deadline for publication of the findings of the inquiry into the UK's involvement in the 1984 massacre at the Golden Temple in Amritsar;
	(2)  whether release of the findings of the inquiry into the UK's involvement in the 1984 massacre at the Golden Temple in Amritsar will include publication of all relevant documents.

David Cameron: I refer the hon. Member to the oral statement made by the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for Richmond (Yorks) (Mr Hague), on 4 February 2014, Official Report, columns 139-142.

World Economic Forum

David Hanson: To ask the Prime Minister how many (a) Ministers and (b) officials attended the 2014 Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos; what the total cost of their attendance was; and what the (i) travel, (ii) accommodation and (iii) subsistence costs were.

David Cameron: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 28 January 2014, Official Report, column 469W, to the hon. Member for Newport West (Paul Flynn).

DEFENCE

European Fighter Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Typhoon Availability Service Contract extension was open to competition.

Philip Dunne: No. The continued provision of the Typhoon Availability Service has been secured by an extension to the pre-existing contract.

European Fighter Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the mimumum number of Typhoon jets is that must be available for use by the RAF under the Typhoon Availability Service contract.

Philip Dunne: The minimum number of Typhoon aircraft that must be available for use by the RAF under the Typhoon Availability Service contract is as follows:
	
		
			 Financial year Forward available fleet 
			 2013-14  
			 Q1 79 
			 Q2 83 
			 Q3 86 
			 Q4 90 
		
	
	
		
			   
			 2014-15  
			 Q1 90 
			 Q2 92 
			 Q3 94 
			 Q4 96

Guided Weapons

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what plans he has for procuring air launched suppression of enemy air defences weapons for the Typhoon and Joint Strike Fighter.

Philip Dunne: We have no plans to procure bespoke air launched suppression of enemy air defence weapons for the Typhoon and Lightning II fleets.
	UK armed forces have a range of capabilities that can be used to counter enemy air defences, including kinetic strikes via long-range cruise missiles, such as Tomahawk and Storm Shadow, and a multitude of highly effective precision air to ground weapons.

HMS Ark Royal

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence how much his Department has spent on the purchase of parts for HMS Ark Royal to be used for repair and refitting; and what proportion of this total has been spent on parts specifically for use on HMS Illustrious.

Philip Dunne: The total cost of the purchase of parts from the former Aircraft Carrier, Ark Royal for use on the repair and refitting of HMS Illustrious, is approximately £18,500 excluding VAT. This was for an electrical switchboard.
	Obtaining the switchboard from the former Ark Royal rather than using other procurement options resulted in savings of approximately £57,000 and meant the part could be replaced months before it otherwise would have been.
	Since the retirement and sale of the former HMS Ark Royal in 2013, this is the only purchase of parts from this vessel by the Ministry of Defence.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the (a) original projected cost, (b) cost to date and (c) anticipated final cost has been for the F35 programme.

Philip Dunne: The National Audit Office Major Project Report 2012 provides the total approved cost for the UK F-35 as £2,716 million and the forecast cost as £2,344 million. The Major Project Report 2013 is due to be published in the near future and will provide the next update on UK F-35 costs.
	The incremental nature of the F-35 approvals means that the total cost of the programme is updated after each Main Gate is endorsed. At this time the cost estimate reflects the first three Main Gates, with the fourth yet to be formally announced. The UK F-35 programme is scheduled to seek financial approval for its fifth and final main gate in 2017. At this point the overall cost of the programme will be published. Whilst the Ministry of Defence maintains a detailed through-life cost estimate for the programme which forecasts all Main Gates it does not publish these figures ahead of formal contract negotiation in order to protect our commercial position.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Vernon Coaker: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what the computer software specification for the F35 programme is; and whether there have been any problems with this specification.

Philip Dunne: There is no single software specification for the F-35 Programme. The Joint Strike Fighter contract specification allows the aircraft designers to identify appropriate standards and then justify and agree their selection with the US Government. To date, there have been no specific problems with the aircraft design in terms of software specification.

Joint Strike Fighter Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what assessment he has made of the findings of the US Department of Defense's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation report into software development delays on the Joint Strike fighter and its effect on the in-service date for the RAF.

Philip Dunne: An independent programme review from the US Department of Defense's Director of Operational Test and Evaluation occurs annually. The issues identified in the last report (2012) were well known and are being actively resolved by the Joint Strike Fighter programme. The 2013 report has yet to be formally issued by the US.
	Overall the F-35 programme continues to make steady progress. The UK programme remains on track to deliver Initial Operating Capability in December 2018.

Pay

Chris Bryant: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence (a) how many and (b) what proportion of staff employed by (i) his Department, (ii) agencies of his Department and (iii) contractors of his Department are paid less than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation as a living wage.

Anna Soubry: The following table shows the number and proportion of civilian staff employed by the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and its agencies who are paid less than the rate defined by the Living Wage Foundation (LWF) as a living wage.
	
		
			 Department/Agency Numbers paid less than LWF London Rate of £8.80 per hour Numbers paid less than LWF National Rate of £7.65 per hour Number of staff as a proportion of the civilian workforce (%) 
			 Ministry of Defence 10 970 12 
			 United Kingdom Hydrographic Office 0 20 1.9 
			 Defence Support Group 0 40 1.6 
		
	
	
		
			 Defence Science and Technology Laboratory 0 60 1.4 
			 Notes: 1. Figures have been rounded to the nearest 10. 2. Figures are as at 27 January 2014. 
		
	
	I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 18 November 2013, Official Report, column 697W, to the hon. Member for Hayes and Harlington (John McDonnell) in which I stated that in the MOD there were 1,240 employees paid less than the LWF National rate of £7.65. It has now become apparent that this figure was not correct and should have read 1,080.
	Contracted workers' rates of pay, where paid by their parent company or recruitment agency, are not visible to the Department.

Public Expenditure

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place in the Library a copy of his Department's (a) Comprehensive Spending Review 1998, (b) Spending Review 2000, (c) Spending Review 2002, (d) Spending Review 2004 and (e) Comprehensive Spending Review 2007 settlement letters.

Philip Hammond: I am withholding these letters as release would be likely to compromise the future formulation and development of Government policy.

Radar: Hebrides

Angus MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what estimate he has made of the (a) current value of the radar station in North Uist, (b) likely value of that station after its upgrade and (c) cost of the upgrade.

Philip Dunne: The current net book value of the Remote Radar Head Benbecula T92 radar at North Uist is approximately £7.9 million. I am withholding figures associated with upgrading the radar as their disclosure would prejudice commercial interests.

Radar: Hebrides

Angus MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what other (a) NATO or (b) non-NATO countries are investing or plan to invest in defence assets in the Hebrides.

Philip Dunne: Investigations are being conducted to determine whether there is scope to utilise investment from overseas countries to broaden the capability of the Ministry of Defence's Hebrides Range. I am withholding details of this work as its disclosure would or would be likely to prejudice relations between the UK and another state.

Staff

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence what role he plans for the (a) Chief of the Defence Staff and (b) single service chiefs of staff to play in negotiations about the size of the defence budget in the next Spending Review.

Philip Hammond: Negotiations for the next spending review will be led by the Permanent Secretary and the Director General Finance.
	The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) will play a key role in preparations for the spending review both as the most senior military adviser to the Secretary of State and as a member of the Defence Board. The Single Service Chiefs of Staff will also have an important role, and input their views to CDS as members of the Armed Forces Committee.

Tornado Aircraft

Angus Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence whether the Honeywell Traffic Collision Avoidance System II was purchased for installation on the Tornado GR4.

Philip Dunne: Yes, the Honeywell Traffic Collision Avoidance System II is currently undergoing installation on the Tornado GR4 fleet.

Veterans: Criminal Proceedings

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence if he will place a copy of his submission to the Stewart Review into Veterans in the Criminal Justice System in the Library.

Anna Soubry: The vast majority of service leavers make a successful transition to civilian life. However, for a few the transition is not straightforward and for a variety of different reasons, some find themselves caught up in the criminal justice system. The most recent statistics available estimate that around 3.5% of the prison population in England and Wales are service veterans, although many of these will have left the armed forces a considerable time before offending.
	The Ministry Of Defence (MOD) works through the Ex-Service Offenders Working Group (which also includes the Ministry of Justice, the National Offender Management Service and service charities) to ensure that the ex-service prison and probation offender population, their families and resettlement services are fully informed of the forms and levels of support available from the Service Personnel Veterans Agency (SPVA). This support and assistance applies during imprisonment as well as pre- and post-discharge. The group is currently reviewing its terms of reference and membership to ensure that it remains focused and representative.
	A number of voluntary organisations provide welfare visits to veterans in prison and to their families, in order that they can be helped through the crucial period either side of their release.
	The Stewart review into Veterans in the Criminal Justice System which is being led by the Ministry of Justice, has only just begun. We will consider what support the MOD might offer as the review progresses.

ATTORNEY-GENERAL

Court Orders

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how many prosecutions there were for breach of a restraining order in each year from 2007-08 to 2012-13.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of offences in which a prosecution commenced and reached a first hearing in magistrates courts, rather than the number of defendants prosecuted or convicted.

Domestic Violence

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General in what proportion of domestic violence cases handled by the Crown Prosecution Service prosecutors opposed bail in (a) each year from 2007-08 to 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14 to date.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) does not maintain a central record of the number of cases in which prosecutors opposed bail, including domestic violence cases. To obtain details of the proportion of domestic violence cases in which prosecutors opposed bail, would require a manual exercise of reviewing individual case files to be undertaken at a disproportionate cost.

Domestic Violence

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how many domestic violence prosecutions were unsuccessful because of victim issues in (a) 2013-14 to date and (b) each year from 2008-09 to 2012-13.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the numbers of defendants in cases flagged as involving domestic violence in its Case Management System and associated Management Information System.
	The following table shows, for each of the last five years and April to December 2013, the number of proceedings where the prosecution was unsuccessful because of victim issues for defendants identified as committing offences involving domestic violence.
	The CPS defines domestic violence as any threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between those who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. Family members include mother, father, son, daughter, sister, and grandparents, whether directly related, in laws or step family. Victim issues are defined as circumstances where the victim retracts or withdraws their complaint, or fails to attend at the trial hearing, or where their evidence does not support the prosecution.
	
		
			  Number1 
			 2008-09 9,237 
			 2009-10 10,380 
			 2010-11 11,515 
			 2011-12 10,667 
			 2012-13 9,368 
			 April-December 2013 7,763 
		
	
	
		
			 1 The data is accurate only to the extent that the domestic violence flag has been correctly applied and that the reasons 'victim issues' has been properly identified. The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data which constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. This data has been drawn from the CPS's administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS.

Domestic Violence

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how many unsuccessful prosecutions for domestic violence there were in (a) each year from 2008-09 to 2012-13 and (b) 2013-14 to date; and in how many such cases the prosecution was unsuccessful because the prosecution offered no evidence.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of cases flagged as being within the offence category ‘domestic violence’ in its Case Management System and associated Management Information System.
	The CPS defines domestic violence as any threatening behaviour, violence or abuse (psychological, physical, sexual, financial or emotional) between those who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of gender or sexuality. Family members include mother, father, son, daughter, sister, and grandparents, whether directly related, in laws or step family. The data are accurate only to the extent that the flag has been correctly applied.
	The following table shows, for each of the last five complete years and 2013-14 to end December, the number and proportion of proceedings where the CPS offered no evidence and all unsuccessful outcomes for cases flagged as domestic violence.
	
		
			 Domestic violence flagged cases1 
			  Offered no evidence Total unsuccessful2  
			  Number Percentage Number Percentage Total prosecutions 
			 2008-09 7,632 11.4 18,629 27.8 67,094 
			 2009-10 8,665 11.7 20,766 28.0 74,113 
			 2010-11 9,812 11.9 23,086 28.1 82,187 
			 2011-12 9,271 11.7 21,130 26.7 79,268 
			 2012-13 8,299 11.7 18,153 25.7 70,702 
			 2013-4 (3Qtrs) 6,658 11.7 14,198 25.0 56,696 
			 1 The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data which constitute official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. These data have been drawn from the CPS's administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS. 2 Unsuccessful outcomes comprise prosecutions dropped before evidence was heard including cases where no evidence was offered, cases dismissed or acquitted after trial, discharged proceedings and administrative finalisations.

Prosecutions

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General how many cases were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service from the police in each year from 2006-07 to 2012-13; and how many such cases were (a) requests for a decision to charge, (b) requesting approval of a decision to caution and (c) requesting approval of a decision to take no further action.

Oliver Heald: The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) maintains a central record of the number of suspects referred to it by the police and other investigative bodies for a pre-charge decision. The CPS does not maintain a central record of the reason a charging decision has been requested and obtaining such information would require a manual review of individual case files incurring disproportionate cost.

Prosecutions

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Attorney-General 
	(1)  on how many occasions the Crown Prosecution Service has (a) decided to take no further action on a case referred to it for a pre-charge decision and (b) discontinued a case after initially deciding to charge since 2010;
	(2)  in how many and what proportion of cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a charging decision since 2010 the CPS took no further action.

Oliver Heald: The following table shows the number of cases referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for a pre-charge decision (PCD) where the reviewing lawyer decided to take no further action. In addition to decisions to take no further action, the CPS can make decisions to charge or that another out of court disposal is appropriate, such as a caution or conditional caution, reprimand, final warning or that the alleged offences are taken into consideration.
	
		
			  Number of completed PCDs Number of PCDs with decision to take no further action (NFA) Proportion of NFAs (percentage) 
			 2010-11 468,656 120,670 25.7 
			 2011-12 369,564 89,579 24.2 
			 2012-13 309,315 74,200 24.0 
		
	
	The following table shows the number of cases where the CPS initially made a decision to charge and where proceedings were subsequently discontinued. Figures for discontinuances include cases discontinued under S.23 or S.23A of the Prosecution of Offences Act 1985, or where charges were withdrawn and includes figures for defendants who were bound over. It does not include figures for cases dropped using other methods of termination.
	
		
			 Financial year Finalised cases 
			 2010-11 18,381 
			 2011-12 14,649 
			 2012-13 11,156 
		
	
	The CPS collects data to assist in the effective management of its prosecution functions. The CPS does not collect data which constitutes official statistics as defined in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. The data provided above has been drawn from the CPS's administrative IT system, which (as with any large scale recording system) is subject to possible errors with data entry and processing. The figures are provisional and subject to change as more information is recorded by the CPS.

TREASURY

Credit

Chris Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what discussions he has had with the Competition Commission on the effect that real time credit data sharing would have on competition in the payday loans industry.

Sajid Javid: Treasury Ministers and officials have meetings with a wide variety of organisations in the public and private sectors as part of the process of policy development and delivery.

Credit

Chris Evans: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  what assessment he has made of the extent to which lenders are able to obtain up to date information from credit reference agencies;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the cost of introducing real time credit data sharing; and what his policy is on whether such costs could be met by industry.

Meg Hillier: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer 
	(1)  if he will support real time data sharing for credit records;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of (a) the cost to the public purse and (b) the benefits of real time credit data sharing.

Sajid Javid: The Government has made clear to payday lenders that real-time market-wide data sharing is key to proper affordability assessments and promoting a competitive market.
	The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is looking at real-time market-wide data sharing as a priority, including as part of its work to design a payday cap. It will look at the role of credit reference agencies (CRAs) and international examples of data sharing systems.
	The FCA has made clear to industry that it must identify and remove any blockages faced by high-cost short-term lenders and CRAs in sharing real-time data with the rest of the credit market as a matter of urgency. If the industry fails to overcome the obstacles, the FCA has been clear that it will not hesitate to act.

Currencies

Laura Sandys: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what assessment his Department has made of the potential effect of (a) bitcoins and (b) other electronic currencies on the future of international currency markets.

Sajid Javid: HMT has not made a specific assessment of the impact of bitcoin, or other similar electronic currencies, on the international currency markets. However, the Treasury continues to assess a wide range of international economic and financial developments—as part of its normal work.

Excise Duties: Alcoholic Drinks

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what the additional tax yield has been in each year since 2010-11 as a result of alcohol duty enforcement activities by HM Revenue and Customs.

Nicky Morgan: The primary focus of HMRC alcohol duty enforcement activity is to reduce tax losses attributable to fraud. The following table shows the amount of revenue protected as a result of enforcement activity under HMRC’s ‘Tackling Alcohol Fraud’ strategy in each of the last three years.
	
		
			  Revenue protected (£ million) 
			 2008-09 1150 
			 2009-10 1353 
			 2010-11 432.9 
			 2011-12 399.4 
			 2012-13 612.5 
			 1 Approx.

Excise Duties: Alcoholic Drinks

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent assessment he has made of the (a) fiscal and (b) economic effects of postponing (i) the planned increases in the rates of duties on wines and spirits and (ii) the planned inflationary increase in beer duties for 2014-15.

Nicky Morgan: Budget 2013 cancelled the beer duty escalator so beer duty will rise by inflation only in 2014-15. In line with the accelerator inherited from the last Government, duties on wine, spirits and cider will rise by 2% above inflation in 2014-15.
	An indication of the fiscal effect of a 1% increase in duty in 2014-15 on all alcoholic drinks is in HMRC’s published ready reckoners available here:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/expenditures/table1-6.pdf
	The magnitude of the effect of a 1% increase in duties is broadly similar to a 1% cut, and the 1% ready reckoner can be scaled up or down to derive a rough estimate. With RPI inflation of around 3% a postponement of the increases in the rates of duty would result in a duty rate cut of around 5% for wine and spirits and 3% for beer. Therefore the impact would be around five and three times that stated in the ready reckoner above, respectively.
	As part of the Budget process economic effects such as economic growth and employment are considered for the whole package of economic measures.

Financial Services: Prosecutions

Tom Blenkinsop: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many criminal prosecutions the Financial Conduct Authority has commenced since its creation.

Sajid Javid: The Government set up the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) as part of its fundamental reform of the regulatory system. The FCA is a new independent conduct of business regulator that began operation on 1 April 2013.
	This question has been passed on to the FCA. The FCA will reply to directly to the hon. Member by letter. A copy of the letter will be placed in the Library of the House.

Income Tax

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many individuals paid the top rate of income tax in each of the last five years.

David Gauke: Estimates for the number of individuals paying the top-rate of income tax for the past five years can be found in HMRC's 'Income Tax Liabilities Statistics' publication table 2.1.
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/number-of-individual-income-taxpayers-by-marginal-rate-gender-and-age
	The most recent figure for 2011-12 was published on 31 January here:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/income-by-year/table3-4.pdf

Money Laundering

Naomi Long: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer with reference to the Prime Minister's letter to the President of the European Council of 15 November 2013, what steps he is taking to ensure the European Fourth Money Laundering Directive visibly leads global efforts to strengthen transparency of company beneficial ownership.

Sajid Javid: HM Treasury is leading negotiations for the UK on the Fourth Money Laundering Directive. Treasury officials have been engaged with the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, other member states and the European Commission since the publication of legislative proposals in February 2013.
	In particular we are working hard to encourage our European counterparts to match the UK's ambition on this issue and mandate publicly accessible registries of company beneficial ownership through the directive. We have already submitted amendments to that effect, and will continue to work with the European Parliament and other member states to ensure the EU leads from the front on this issue.

Pay: Wales

Owen Smith: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent estimate he has made of the cumulative change in real terms wages in Wales since 2010.

Nick Hurd: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
	The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Chief Economic Advisor, dated February 2014
	On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Chancellor of the Exchequer what recent estimate he has made of the cumulative change in real terms wages in Wales since 2010. (185791)
	The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Weekly levels of earnings are estimated from ASHE, and are provided for employees on adult rates of pay, whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence. Figures relate to employee jobs, which are defined as those held by employees and not the self-employed.
	The table shows estimates of median gross weekly earnings in Wales from 2010 to 2013, the latest period for which results are available. Figures are provided for full-time employees, part-time employees and all employees and are given separately in cash terms and in 2013 prices.
	In order to account for a discontinuity in the series in 2011, percentage changes between 2010 and 2013 were calculated by compounding growth rates between individual years. Consequently, the percentage changes shown in the table do not correspond precisely to the actual percentage differences between the 2010 and 2013 earnings estimates.
	
		
			 Median gross weekly earnings for employees1 in Wales between April 2010 and April 2013, in cash prices and at constant prices 
			  Cash prices (£) Constant (2013) prices (£) 
			 Year (April) Part-time Full-time All Part-time Full-time All 
			 2010 150.3 450.8 364.2 165.6 497.0 401.5 
			 20112,3 150.5 454.4 366.5 158.9 479.5 386.8 
			 20114,3 150.6 451.3 362.3 159.0 476.3 3S2.4 
			 2012 150.0 452.5 361.5 153.7 463.5 370.3 
			 2013 158.2 472.3 380.0 158.2 472.3 380.0 
			        
			 Percentage change       
			 2010 to 20135 5.2 5.5 5.5 -4.5 -4.3 -4.3 
		
	
	
		
			 1 Employee jobs are defined as those held by employees and not the self-employed. Figures relate to employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. ASHE is based on a 1% sample of jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs’ Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. Consequently, individuals with more than one job may appear in the sample more than once. 2 2011 results based on Standard Occupational Classification 2000. 3 Estimates for years prior to 2011 are based on SOC 2000 and estimates for years after 2011 are based on SOC 2010. Figures are only considered to be directly comparable if they are based on the same SOC. 4 2011 results based on Standard Occupational Classification 2010. 5 In order to account for the series discontinuity, percentage changes between 2010 and 2013 were calculated by compounding growth rates between individual years. Consequently, the percentage changes shown in the table do not correspond precisely to the actual percentage differences between the 2010 and 2013 earnings estimates. Guide to quality: The coefficient of variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure; the smaller the CV value, the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV—for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5%, we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. The current price earnings estimates in the table all have coefficients of variation which are between 0% and 5%. It has not been possible to calculate the coefficients of variation for the constant price earnings estimates. The Consumer Prices Index has been used to deflate the ASHE earnings estimates. Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics

Pensions: Tax Allowances

Mark Hoban: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will make an assessment of the annual benefit to the public purse of reducing (a) the annual allowance for tax relief on pensions contributions to £30,000 and (b) the lifetime allowance to £1 million.

David Gauke: The Government have previously announced reductions to the annual and lifetime allowances for pension savings. The most recent of these will have effect from 2014-15.
	The annual allowance is the value of tax relieved savings that an individual may receive in any single year, subject to three years of carry forward of any unused allowances. This is currently set at £50,000 having been reduced from £255,000 by this Government. From 2014-15 it will further be reduced to £40,000. This measure affects the top 1% of pension contributions.
	The lifetime allowance limits the total value of tax relieved savings that may be accrued by an individual throughout their life. This is currently set at £1.5 million, down from £1.8 million in 2010. From 2014-15 this limit will be further reduced to £1.25 million.
	The combination of the reductions in allowances from the 2014-15 tax year are forecast to raise just over £1 billion per annum in steady state.

Personal Income

Stephen McCabe: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what records his Department holds on individuals earning over £1 million pounds per annum in each of the last five years.

David Gauke: Estimates for the number of individuals with total income over £1 million can be found in HMRC's 'Income Tax Liabilities Statistics' publication table 2.5:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/income-tax-liabilities-by-income-range
	The most recent figure for 2011/12 was published on 31st January here:
	http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/statistics/income-by-year/table3-4.pdf

Tax Avoidance

Gregory Campbell: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer if he will review the use of personal service companies as a means of tax avoidance.

David Gauke: Personal Service Companies are not in themselves avoidance vehicles and contribute to the flexibility of the UK labour market.
	Where Personal Service Companies are used for the purpose of avoidance, anti avoidance legislation: the intermediaries legislation (commonly known as IR35), already exists to ensure the right tax and national insurance is paid where individuals attempt to avoid paying tax and national insurance on what is in effect employment income.
	As part of the OTS recommendations set out in their review of small business HMRC has improved the way in which it administers IR35, including strengthening its specialist compliance teams which tackle avoidance of employment taxes, increasing the number of investigations where IR35 is the main risk this year by tenfold and clarifying the application of the legislation to officeholders.

Taxation: Self-assessment

Stella Creasy: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer how many complaints (a) his Department and (b) HM Revenue and Customs have received about websites that charge a fee for submitting tax returns in the past 12 months.

David Gauke: Submitting a tax return through the HMRC website directly is free. Customers can choose to use a service that charges a fee for services such as filing a tax return.
	HMRC does not hold the numbers of specific complaints made against these services, but is acutely aware of customer feedback and takes it very seriously. We do not in any way approve or endorse tax agents and will seek to ensure firm action is taken by the appropriate authorities against any website that makes such misleading claims.

BUSINESS, INNOVATION AND SKILLS

Adult Education: Sussex

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people in Mid Sussex constituency are enrolled in adult skills sessions.

Matthew Hancock: Final data for the 2012/13 academic year show that there were 4,510 adult (19+) learners participating in Further Education and Skills in Mid Sussex parliamentary constituency.

Employment: Norfolk

Chloe Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills how many people are economically active in (a) Norwich North constituency, (b) the local authority area of Norwich and (c) Norfolk; and how many such people are paid (i) national minimum wage (NMW) and (ii) more than NMW but less that £7.65 per hour in each such area.

Nick Hurd: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Cabinet Office.
	The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Peter Fullerton, dated February 2014
	On behalf of the Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your recent Parliamentary Question asking the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, how many people are economically active in (a) Norwich North constituency, (b) the local authority area of Norwich and (c) Norfolk; and how many such people are paid (i) national minimum wage (NMW) and (ii) more than NMW but less that £7.65 per hour in each such area. (185952)
	Estimates of the number of people who are economically active are produced from the Annual Population Survey (APS). The table shows estimates of the number of economically active people in Norwich North constituency, the local authority area of Norwich and Norfolk.
	The Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), carried out in April each year, is the most comprehensive source of earnings information in the United Kingdom. Hourly levels of earnings are estimated from ASHE, and are provided for employees on adult rates of pay, whose earnings for the survey pay period were not affected by absence. The Office for National Statistics produces estimates for the number of people paid below the national minimum wage but does not produce estimates for those paid at the national minimum wage. It is also not possible to estimate the number of jobs with hourly pay between specified thresholds using ASHE data, though it is possible to estimate the corresponding proportions of jobs.
	The tables show the proportion of employee jobs with hourly earnings above the national minimum wage but less than £7.65 in Norwich North constituency, the local authority area of Norwich and Norfolk as at April 2013, the latest period for which results are available. Figures relate to employee jobs, which are defined as those held by employees and not the self-employed.
	I note that £7.65 is the current rate suggested by the Living Wage Foundation for a UK living wage. The latest ASHE data are for April 2013, at which time the corresponding rate was £7.45. I have therefore also provided the proportions of employee jobs with hourly earnings national minimum wage but less than £7.45 in April 2013 for the geographies specified.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of people (thousand) aged 16 and over economically active resident in Norwich North, Norwich and Norfolk 
			 Thousand 
			 12 months ending: Norwich North Norwich Norfolk 
			 September 2013 ***51 **86 *445 
			 Note: Coefficients of Variation have been calculated for the latest period as an indication of the quality of the estimates. See Guide to Quality below. Guide to Quality: The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of an estimate, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV-for example, for an estimate of 200 with a CV of 5% we would expect the population total to be within the range 180-220. Key: * 0 ≤ CV <5%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered precise ** 5 ≤ CV <10%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered reasonably precise *** 10 ≤ CV <20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered acceptable **** CV ≥ 20%—Statistical Robustness: Estimates are considered too unreliable for practical purposes CV = Coefficient of Variation Source: Annual Population Survey 
		
	
	
		
			 Proportion of employee jobs1 with hourly earnings above the national minimum wage and below (a) £7.65 and (b)£7.45 in April 2013 
			  Proportion of employee jobs (percentage) 
			  ≥NMW2 and <£7.65 ≥NMW2 and <£7.45 
			 Norwich North constituency ***23.5 ***21.2 
			 Norwich **27.9 **25.2 
			 Norfolk *26.8 *23.6 
			 1 Employee jobs are defined as those held by employees and not the self-employed. Figures relate to employees on adult rates whose pay for the survey pay-period was not affected by absence. ASHE is based on a 1 per cent sample of jobs taken from HM Revenue and Customs' Pay As You Earn (PAYE) records. Consequently, individuals with more than one job may appear in the sample more than once. 2 In April 2013 the National Minimum Wage was £3.68 per hour for employees under age 18, £4.98 for employees between 18 and 20 years old and £6.19 for employees aged 21 and over. Guide to quality The Coefficient of Variation (CV) indicates the quality of a figure, the smaller the CV value the higher the quality. The true value is likely to lie within +/- twice the CV-for example, for an average of 200 with a CV of 5%, we would expect the population average to be within the range 180 to 220. Key: * CV <5% ** CV >5% and ≤ 10% *** CV >10% and ≤ 20% Source: Annual Survey of Hours and Earnings (ASHE), Office for National Statistics.

Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme

David Hanson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will instigate an inquiry into the use of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee and Royal Bank of Scotland handling in relation to C. May Brickwork Ltd of Mold, Flintshire.

Matthew Hancock: I do not intend to instigate an inquiry of the type proposed. There are existing procedures in place between the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) and the banks, including regular independent auditing of a sample of each bank's use of the scheme, through which any issues arising in relation to the operation of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee are raised and addressed.
	BIS is aware of the dispute between C May Brickwork Ltd and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS). Should the circumstances of that dispute raise issues regarding RBS's use of the Enterprise Finance Guarantee then those will be addressed in accordance with existing procedures.

Financial Reporting Council

Austin Mitchell: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the effect of the appointment of Sir Win Bischoff, Chair of Lloyds Bank, as Chair of the Financial Reporting Council on the ability of that body to process complaints against Lloyds; and if he will make a statement.

Jennifer Willott: Decisions to investigate complaints under the Financial Reporting Council's (FRC) Professional Disciplinary Scheme or to constitute a Financial Reporting Review Panel are taken by the Conduct Committee of the FRC, not its Board. The Conduct Committee has a majority of lay members, that is members who are not practicing accountants or actuaries. Current practising auditors as well as officers of the professional bodies it regulates are excluded from membership. The Chair of the FRC does not participate in the Conduct Committee.

Financial Services

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of progress made by the Law Commission inquiry into the fiduciary duties of investment management intermediaries; and if he will make a statement.

Jennifer Willott: The Law Commission commenced its review of fiduciary duties in the investment chain in March 2013. It published a detailed consultation document in October 2013, launching a formal consultation exercise which closed on 22 January 2014. The Law Commission has committed to report to Government with recommendations by June 2014. Work is progressing on track to meet this commitment.
	Government officials from the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills and the Department of Work and Pensions are in regular contact with the Law Commission officials as they complete this work. The Government will of course consider the recommendations in the final report carefully.

Foreign Investment in UK

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what international and domestic protections currently exist to safeguard US investors in the UK from unjustified expropriation of their investment.

Jennifer Willott: UK and European laws protecting US owners of property (including investments) in the UK against state expropriation on unjust terms include the following:
	(a) Longstanding domestic law. The UK courts have recognised the right to property as a fundamental legal right since at least the eighteenth century. State infringements of this right can be challenged as unlawful through judicial review claims.
	(b) The Human Rights Act 1998 gives effect under UK law to the rights to property in the European convention on human rights and fundamental freedoms, of which the UK is a member. Article 1 of the first protocol to the convention provides that:
	“Every natural or legal person is entitled to the peaceful enjoyment of his possessions. No one shall be deprived of his possessions except in the public interest and subject to the conditions provided for by law and by the general principles of international law”.
	Although this right is not absolute, any interference by a public authority must be lawful, pursue a legitimate aim, and be proportionate. State infringements of this right can be challenged before UK Courts under the Human Rights Act 1998 and ultimately before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg. The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights reflects the same principle where the UK is acting to implement EU law.

Foreign Trade: Developing Countries

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the implications of growth of south-south trade for the UK economy; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Fallon: The Department has made no formal assessment.

Post Offices

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills when he last met the Chief Executive of Post Office Ltd to discuss initiatives and proven technologies to generate more footfall across the Post Office network; and if he will make a statement.

Jennifer Willott: Ministers hold regular meetings with senior representatives from Post Office Ltd to discuss a wide range of matters. In addition, officials from the Department's Shareholder Executive team maintain a close and continuous dialogue with the company.
	Details of all external meetings undertaken by Ministers at the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills are published on a quarterly basis on the gov.uk website.
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications?departments%5B%5D=department-for-business-innovation-skills&publication_type=transparency-data
	Information for October to December 2013 will be published in due course.
	My hon. Friend Member for East Dunbartonshire (Jo Swinson), in her role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Employment Relations and Consumer Affairs, met senior representatives from Post Office Ltd on nine occasions in the first six months of this financial year (1 April to 30 September 2013).

Publicity

Steven Baker: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will release the Business is Great campaign posters and related materials under a creative commons licence.

Matthew Hancock: The Business is GREAT Britain campaign launched in November 2013 to offer information, inspiration and advice to small businesses. The campaign is designed to showcase the very best of what businesses in Britain can do.
	In addition the GREAT Britain campaign is used internationally. It launched in 2011, where it operates in 134 markets and is supported by 150 businesses and iconic British celebrities. It is therefore important that the campaign is delivered consistently here and internationally and that the quality of the campaign is maintained. Consequently there are no plans to release under the creative commons licence.

Railways: Training

Caroline Dinenage: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new further education college for railway construction on (a) the Network Rail Apprenticeship Programme in Gosport and (b) other existing training programmes.

Matthew Hancock: The relationship with other providers will be considered as plans for the college are developed. The intention however is that the college will meet excess demand in the system that cannot currently be met by existing providers.

Temporary Employment

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills if he will have discussions with the Recruitment and Employment Confederation on ways of ensuring that the recruitment process for temporary workers is as transparent and efficient as possible.

Jennifer Willott: Ministers in the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills have met the Recruitment and Employment Confederation to discuss matters of relevance to the recruitment industry.
	The recruitment sector is regulated by the Employment Agencies Act 1973 and the Conduct of Employment Agencies and Employment Businesses Regulations 2003 (both as amended). Following a public consultation, the Government has announced its intention to replace the current legislation with a new regulatory framework which removes some of the burden from business but continues to protect people who are looking for work.
	The Government believes that the recruitment sector should be allowed to develop their own methods of maintaining standards above and beyond the legislative requirements.
	The Recruitment and Employment Confederation has a Code of Professional Practice with which they require their members to comply.

COMMUNITIES AND LOCAL GOVERNMENT

Council Tax

John Stevenson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what total amount was raised by local authorities through council tax in 2013.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 3 February 2014
	Details of the amount of council tax and national non-domestic rates collected in 2012-13 are to be found in tables 5 and 6 of the statistical release ‘Collection rates and receipts of council tax and non-domestic rates in England 2012-13’. This is available on the DCLG website at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/collection-rates-for-council-tax-and-non-domestic-rates-in-england-2012-to-2013
	The tables show the amounts collected both in respect of the current year and previous years but also pre-payments in respect of future years.
	In that year, £22.759 billion was collected in council tax and £21.632 billion collected in business rates.

Fire Services: Pensions

Chris Williamson: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the number of female firefighters who will stay until normal pension age after the changes to the new firefighters pension scheme and firefighters pension scheme.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 3 February 2014
	56% of regular and retained female firefighters are members of the New Firefighters' Pension Scheme 2006, which already has a normal pension age of 60.
	These women will see no change to their normal pension age as a result of the reforms. Due to the transitional protections in place, no firefighter will have to work beyond their current normal pension age until beyond 2022, giving firefighters sufficient time to improve or regain their fitness levels.
	Dr Tony Williams, Medical Director of Working Fit, was commissioned to review the normal pension age for firefighters. Dr Williams found that the decline in fitness for women follows a similar rate to men when activity levels and body mass index are similar, Dr Williams also established that firefighters who remain physically active and maintain a health lifestyle should still be operational at age 60.

Housing: Construction

Daniel Kawczynski: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps the Government has taken to prevent land-banking and speed up the delivery of new homes on sites where planning permission has been granted.

Nicholas Boles: I refer my hon. Friend to my answer of 7 November 2013, Official Report, columns 345-347W, to my hon. Friend the Member for Congleton (Fiona Bruce), and my answer of 16 January 2014, Official Report, columns 611-612W, to the right hon. Member for Leeds Central (Hilary Benn).

Local Government Finance

Clive Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what estimate he has made of the percentage change in spending power between 2013-14 and 2015-16 proposed in the Local Government Finance Settlement in each (a) local authority area and (b) region.

Brandon Lewis: Spending power figures have been published in each of the last five years.
	The spending power figures for 2014-15 and 2015-16 were published with the Provisional Local Government Finance Settlement.
	My Department does not produce statistics by the old, arbitrary and defunct government office regions, for the reasons outlined in the written statement of 18 September 2012, Official Report, columns 31-33WS.

Local Government Finance

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what the 10 local authorities were with (a) highest and (b) lowest levels of funding reductions in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Brandon Lewis: Details of the Local Government Finance settlement for 2014-15 setting out changes in spending power for all English local authorities are available on the Gov.uk website at:
	www.gov.uk/government/collections/final-local-government-finance-settlement-england-2014-to-2015

Local Government: Political Impartiality

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what steps he is taking to ensure that state-funded publications and literature by local authorities are politically impartial when communicating the scale of government funding reductions and budgeting.

Brandon Lewis: holding answer 4 February 2014
	The Code of Recommended Practice on Local Authority Publicity, which local authorities are required to have regard to when producing any publicity, provides that
	'local authorities should ensure that publicity relating to policies and proposals from central government is balanced and factually accurate'.
	The Local Audit and Accountability Act 2014 provides the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government with the power to issue a local authority with a direction requiring compliance with some or all of the code. Parliament has provided the Secretary of State with this power and he will use it whenever he believes this is appropriate.

New Towns

Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government pursuant to the answer of 20 January 2014, Official Report, columns 18-19, what expressions of interest his Department has received from local authorities wishing to be considered as sites for the development of a new town or garden city.

Kris Hopkins: holding answer 27 January 2014
	As explained in response to the right hon. Member's oral question, and as laid out in detail in my written answer of 17 January 2014, Official Report, column 694W and by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, my right hon. Friend the Member for Brentwood and Ongar (Mr Pickles), in his written statement of 24 January 2014, Official Report, columns 15-16WS, this Government is supporting locally-led, large scale development, in contrast to the last Administration's failed, top-down eco-town programme which built nothing but resentment.
	Our support includes capital and capacity funding, brokerage and planning assistance. In our Local Infrastructure Funding prospectus, we defined a large site as a single site of 1,500+ housing units which is locally supported.
	In that context, to date, we have assisted the following local schemes:
	Cranbrook New Community—Devon
	Wokingham
	Sherford New Community
	West Carclaze, St Austell
	North Ely
	Charnwood
	Monkton Heathfield
	Corby, Priors Hall Park
	Fairfield, Milton Keynes
	Ebbsfleet Valley—Kent Thameside
	Bromham Road, Bedford
	Bicester
	Didcot
	Wichelstowe
	Louisburg
	Fareham
	The autumn statement 5 December 2013, Official Report, columns 1101-1113, committed an additional £1 billion for our Local Infrastructure Fund to unlock locally-led housing schemes capable of delivering up to a further 250,000 new homes. A further prospectus inviting bids to this fund will be issued this spring.

Private Rented Housing

Mike Thornton: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government when the discussion paper for the review into housing conditions in privately rented homes will be published.

Kris Hopkins: We are planning to publish the discussion document on the review of housing conditions in the private rented sector shortly.

Private Rented Housing

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what use he has made of the powers granted to him by the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 with respect to property management agent redress schemes; and if he will make a statement.

Kris Hopkins: The Government is making excellent progress in using the powers under the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013 to implement the requirement that all lettings and property management agents in England are members of an approved redress scheme. The power for the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to approve schemes came into force in December 2013 and potential redress schemes have until the end of February to come forward for approval.
	As soon as we announce the approved schemes (expected to be April 2014) we will encourage agents to start joining the schemes ensuring that landlords and tenants have access to redress ahead of the requirement becoming mandatory. We are currently expecting the requirement to take effect later this year, but this is subject to sufficient schemes of the necessary quality coming forward for approval so that all agents can join a scheme.

ENERGY AND CLIMATE CHANGE

Carbon Emissions

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 22 January 2014, Official Report, column 217W, on carbon emissions, how carbon emissions from his Department's energy use and travel is calculated.

Gregory Barker: We collect kWh for our energy usage (electricity, gas and Whitehall District Heating) from meter readings and the building management system. Distance travelled for flight and train travel is sourced from our travel providers and road travel from claims made to our finance department. We then use the most recent iteration of the DEFRA greenhouse gas conversion factors to convert these figures into carbon dioxide equivalent.

Energy: Prices

Sammy Wilson: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what proportion of energy bills were made up of green levies in 2004.

Michael Fallon: The cost of Government schemes are estimated to have accounted for around 2% of the household energy (gas plus electricity) bill in 2004.

Fracking

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change how the community to be recipient of a single £100,000 down payment on the granting of permission to drill a well to frack for gas will be defined.

Michael Fallon: The Industry body UKOOG, which has drawn up these arrangements which the Government has welcomed, set out on 13 January details of how they will operate.
	At exploration stage the operator will provide £100,000 per hydraulically fractured well site. To ensure these community benefit funds are managed and distributed independently of the operators themselves the UK Onshore Operators Group will be partnering with UK Community Foundations (UKCF), which works for communities through a UK-wide network of community foundations. UKCF and its appropriate local community foundation will manage a consultation process to engage the local community in defining local priorities and needs, including the appointment of a community panel to decide how the money will be spent once the consultation is complete.

Pensions

Michael McCann: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials of his Department at (a) AA, (b) AO and LO2, (c) EO and LO1, (d) HEO, (e) SEO, (f) 7 and (g) SCS grades and equivalents since May 2010.

Gregory Barker: The noble Lord Hutton outlined in his report the strong case for changing public sector pensions, saying in his report “these costs have generally fallen to the taxpayer”. The Commission reached the conclusion that:
	“If the Government wishes to make savings in the short-term it will be more effective to increase member contributions rather than alter the benefit structure”.
	Contributions were increased in April 2012, April 2013 and will be increased again in April 2014. The increases were tiered by salary, so that higher earners pay a larger percentage point increase than lower earners. A number of protections were introduced alongside the contribution increases, including:
	Those earning less than £15,000 (full-time equivalent rate) will pay nothing extra;
	Those earning up to £21,000 (full-time equivalent) will pay no more than 1.5% of pay extra in total by 2014-15;
	Higher earners will pay extra, but no more than 5.35% of pay extra in total by 2014-15.
	The following table illustrates the gross percentage increase in the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme (PCSPS) employee contributions:
	
		
			 Percentage 
			 Annual pensionable earnings range (full-time equivalent basis) Civil Service grades included in the annual pensionable earnings range Classic scheme Premium, Classic Plus and Nuvos schemes 
			   2010 2013 2010 2013 
			 £15,001 to £21,000 AA and AO 1.5 2.70 3.5 4.70 
			 £21,001 to £30,000 AO, EO and HEO 1.5 3.88 3.5 5.88 
			 £30,001 to £50,000 HEO, SEO and Grade 7 1.5 4.67 3.5 6.67 
			 £50,001 to £60,000 Grade 7, Grade 6 and SCS 1.5 5.46 3.5 7.46 
			 Over £60,000 Grade 6 and SCS 1.5 6.25 3.5 8.25 
		
	
	All increases in the pension contributions are subject to the normal tax relief and therefore the net increase to the individual is reduced by the value of either the basic rate of income tax (20%), or higher rate of income tax (40%), whichever is applicable to the individual.
	I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him by the Minister for Charities, Social Enterprise and Volunteering, Cabinet Office, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd), on 4 February 2014, Official Report, column 214-5W, which provides information about how the take home pay of those with different levels of salaries is affected by the pension contribution increases.

Plutonium

Paul Flynn: To ask the Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2014, Official Report, column 286W, on plutonium, and with reference to the answer by the Paymaster-General of 24 June 1958, Official Report, columns 246-8, on atomic power stations (plutonium production), for what reasons the notifications made to the design of Hinkley Point and the next two stations did not result in withdrawals of plutonium of a type and quantity suitable for weapons use.

Philip Dunne: I have been asked to reply 
	on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
	No plutonium from Hinkley Point and the next two stations was withdrawn for weapons use, because the need did not arise.

WORK AND PENSIONS

Carer’s Allowance: Uprating

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will uprate the income threshold for carers allowance in line with increases in the minimum wage.

Michael Penning: The Government keeps the earnings limit under review and will consider whether an increase is warranted and affordable.
	The earnings rule in carer's allowance allows carers to maintain links with the workplace by allowing recipients to work and earn up to £100 per week, net of allowable expenses. This means that some carers can earn in excess of the limit and still be entitled to carer's allowance.
	The increase in the national minimum wage will only affect those carers who claim carer's allowance, work 16 hours a week and do not have allowable expenses to take them below the earnings limit. In these circumstances a carer who is also receiving working tax credit will have any loss of carer's allowance offset by an increase in working tax credit.

Disability

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions if he will make an assessment of the effect of recent public debate on welfare benefits for the disabled on the incidence of hate crime towards the disabled.

Michael Penning: Disability hate crime is something the Government takes very seriously. The Government's progress report to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) inquiry into disability-related harassment highlighted work being undertaken to tackle this issue. The EHRC baseline statistical analysis for their inquiry into disability-related harassment ‘Crime and Disabled People’1 last year, found that there has been no significant rise in disability hate crime in 2010 to 2012 compared to 2007 to 2010.
	1 Equality and Human Rights Commission Research report 90: Crime and disabled people: Baseline statistical analysis of measures from the formal legal inquiry into disability-related harassment.
	Nick Coleman, Wendy Sykes and Alison Walker

Employment and Support Allowance: Appeals

Adrian Sanders: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many claimants appealing against the removal of employment and support allowance were not able to claim jobseeker's allowance during the period of appeal in the latest year for which data is available.

Esther McVey: The information requested on how many claimants appealing against the removal of employment and support allowance (ESA) were not able to claim jobseeker's allowance (JSA) during the period of appeal is not available.
	If a claimant is appealing against an ESA decision they can claim JSA; however, entitlement to JSA is dependent upon individual circumstances and subject to the normal rules and conditions of entitlement.

Employment Schemes: Young People

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobs in the adult entertainment industry have been supported by Youth Contract wage incentives.

Esther McVey: I refer the hon. Member to the reply I gave the hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) on 3 February 2014, Official Report, column 97W.

Housing Benefit

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many people claim (a) £20,000, (b) £30,000, (c) £40,000, (d) £50,000, (e) £60,000, (f) £70,000 and (g) £80,000 and above in housing benefit per annum.

Steve Webb: The information requested is available at:
	https://stat-xplore.dwp.gov.uk

Housing Benefit

Hugh Bayley: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total housing benefit bill was for England in each year since 2002-03.

Steve Webb: The total housing benefit bill for England in each year since 2002-03 can be found in the following table:
	
		
			 £ million 
			  Nominal Real terms (2013-14 prices) 
			 2002-03 10,820 14,010 
			 2003-04 10,652 13,531 
			 2004-05 11,410 14,104 
			 2005-06 12,131 14,728 
			 2006-07 12,968 15,303 
			 2007-08 13,780 15,862 
			 2008-09 15,000 16,792 
			 2009-10 17,600 19,177 
			 2010-11 18,874 20,041 
			 2011-12 20,137 20,903 
			 2012-13 21,120 21,542 
			 Source: Local authority subsidy returns.

Housing Benefit: Social Rented Housing

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the answer of 9 December 2013, Official Report, column 43W, on housing benefit: social rented housing, which are the relevant authorities referred to in the answer.

Steve Webb: The DWP DHP guidance manual is published on the Government website at:
	www.Gov.uk
	On publication the Department notified all 380 local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales through circular A11/2013. Please see the following link for ease of reference:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/hb-circular-a112013-discretionary-housing-payments

Jobseeker’s Allowance: Disqualification

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many jobseeker's allowance claimants have been sanctioned in each of the last three years for refusing to accept work in the adult entertainment industry.

Esther McVey: The information requested is not available. If a claimant has reasonable objections to working in a particular industry and makes these objections known to us, these will be a good reason for failing to accept work in that sector and no sanction will apply.

Motability

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what assessment he has made of the effects of (a) the reassessment of people in receipt of the higher rate of disability living allowance and (b) the personal independent payment appeals process on people currently participating in the Motability Scheme.

Michael Penning: No such assessment has been made. The controlled approach to the reassessment of disability living allowance recipients only began on 28 October 2013. There is not enough information yet to assess the effect this phase will have on people currently participating in the Motability scheme. In addition, the vast majority of reassessments will not start until October 2015.
	As an independent charity, Motability is wholly responsible for the administration of the Motability scheme. Questions relating to the recovery of vehicles in situations where the claimant decides to appeal their disallowance decision should be sent to:
	Declan O'Mahony
	Director
	Motability
	Warwick House
	Roydon Road
	Harlow
	Essex
	CM19 5PX.

Pensions

Michael McCann: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what effect changes in pension contributions have had on the take-home pay of officials of his Department at (a) AA, (b) AO and LO2, (c) EO and LO1, (d) HEO, (e) SEO, (f) 7 and (g) SCS grades and equivalents since May 2010.

Michael Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the written answer given by the Minister for Civil Society, my hon. Friend the Member for Ruislip, Northwood and Pinner (Mr Hurd), on 4 February 2014, Official Report, columns 214-5W.

Personal Independence Payment

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions how many personal independence payment claims have exceeded the three-month qualifying period; and what the (a) average and (b) longest time it has taken for a claimant to receive a decision from when the claim was first made in (i) the UK, (ii) Wales and (iii) Aberconwy constituency.

Katy Clark: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  what the average length of time that an individual who requires a home visit waits between his Department receiving their form, How your condition affects you, and receiving an personal independence payment assessment;
	(2)  what the average length of time is an individual waits between his Department receiving their form, How your condition affects you, and receiving an personal independence payment assessment;
	(3)  what the average length of time taken is between an individual making an initial personal independence payment claim and receiving a form, How your condition affects you.

Michael Penning: I refer the hon. Members to the answer I gave on 21 January 2014, Official Report, column 164W, to the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin).

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what the total amount of benefit withheld as a result of benefit sanctions was in each of the last five years.

Esther McVey: The information is not available in the format requested.
	Trends in sanctions are better understood by looking at the number and type of sanction decisions—which are routinely published (the last publication, covering sanctions to end June 2013, was published in November 2013 at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/jobseekers-allowance-sanctions

Social Security Benefits: Greater London

Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions what his most recent estimate is of the number of households in each local authority area in London whose weekly income has been reduced by (a) less than £20, (b) between £20 and £39.99, (c) between £40 and £59.99, (d) between £60 and £79.99, (e) between £80 and £99.99 and (f) over £100 through the introduction of the benefit cap.

Esther McVey: The above information is currently not available.
	A breakdown of the number of households estimated as likely to be affected by the cap showing the reduction in benefit paid by bandwidth at local authority level has been published. This has been placed in the Library and can be found here:
	http://data.parliament.uk/DepositedPapers/Files/DEP2013-0676/Local_Authority_breakdown_of_those_affected_by_the_benefit_cap_final.doc
	These estimates were made prior to implementation of the policy and at that stage around 40,000 households were modelled as likely to be affected.
	As part of our monthly statistical releases we release cumulative figures for the total number of cases capped in each local authority. This information can be found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/benefit-cap-number-of-households-capped-to-november-2013
	It is anticipated that statistics showing additional data including information on levels of reductions will be included in future releases. Further details will be given on the publication strategy landing page found here:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/benefit-cap-statistics

Telephone Services

Guto Bebb: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions 
	(1)  what recent assessment he has made of the efficiency of the personal independence payment helpline; and if he will make a statement;
	(2)  what assessment he has made of the financial effect that charging a premium rate for the (a) personal independence payment helpline and (b) Capita helpline is having on the household income of claimants; and if he will make a statement.

Michael Penning: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave on 21 January 2014, Official Report, column 164W, to the hon. Member for Dudley North (Ian Austin).
	All new claims to personal independence payment (PIP) are made by telephoning an 0800 number—including text phone—and these calls are free from all major landline providers. The Department has also secured agreements from the largest mobile phone companies to provide free mobile calls to these claim lines.
	As with other parts of the Department, inquiry calls for PIP are made using a 0845 number. These numbers are readily recognised and understood by our customers and relate to calls that typically take less time to resolve. Customers using this number can request a call back if necessary.
	The Capita PIP claimant helpline telephone number is a freephone number for landline users.

Universal Credit

Rachel Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions pursuant to the oral answer to the hon. Member for East Lothian of 14 October 2013, Official Report, column 429W, on Departmental Programmes (performance), to which budget he was referring in his statement that universal credit would be on budget; and to which years that budget related.

Esther McVey: Reference was to the budgets currently allocated to universal credit for SR10 (period covering 2011-12 through to end 2014-15) and SR13 (2015-16) spending rounds.

HEALTH

Accident and Emergency Departments: East of England

Gavin Shuker: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the average waiting time was in each accident and emergency department in the East of England in each year since 2009-10.

Jane Ellison: The following tables show the average waiting times to assessment, treatment and departure for providers in the East of England 2009-10 to 2012-13:
	
		
			 The mean and median duration (in minutes) to treatment in Accident and Emergency departments for 2009-10 to 2012-13 for providers in the East of England SHA 
			  2009-10 2010-11 
			 Provider Mean duration to treatment Median duration to treatment Duration to treatment denominator Mean duration to treatment Median duration to treatment Duration to treatment denominator 
			 Suffolk PCT — — — 12.9 5 5,207 
			 Suffolk Community Healthcare HQ — — — — — — 
			 Fryatt Hospital — — — — — — 
			 Clacton Hospital — — — — — — 
			 Cheshunt Minor Injuries Unit — — — — — — 
			 The Riverside Clinic — — — 20.9 15 12,797 
			 Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 63.7 53 75,376 79.1 66 72,642 
			 Bedford Hospital NHS Trust 1.3 1 62,285 1.5 1 57,969 
			 Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 194.0 88 60,726 212.2 99 63,860 
		
	
	
		
			 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust 55.2 42 59,584 63.7 54 51,834 
			 Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 110.0 85 83,300 99.8 90 84,395 
			 Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust 67.9 59 65,618 71.4 63 66,197 
			 Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 66.5 55 64,523 73.6 61 67,350 
			 James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 52.2 38 63,419 45.0 31 65,088 
			 Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust 10.8 0 55,445 67.8 57 60,860 
			 West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust 77.9 68 39,584 69.6 59 33,413 
			 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 61.7 50 75,712 72.9 62 77,389 
			 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 70.7 64 92,201 74.7 69 95,839 
			 Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust 102.1 95 57,484 104.5 98 59,960 
			 Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust 68.0 46 34,404 75.5 38 27,580 
			 The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 86.1 73 69,401 89.9 74 69,921 
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 86.8 64 65,258 100.7 76 82,958 
			 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust — — — 2.5 2 52 
			 Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust — — — — — — 
			 Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust — — — — — — 
		
	
	
		
			  2011-12 2012-13 
			 Provider Mean duration to treatment Median duration to treatment Duration to treatment denominator Mean duration to treatment Median duration to treatment Duration to treatment denominator 
			 Suffolk PCT 8.4 4 6,744 6.7 3 3,549 
			 Suffolk Community Healthcare HQ — — — 8.8 5 2,812 
			 Fryatt Hospital 20.0 12 5,581 19.9 11 5,473 
			 Clacton Hospital 19.8 13 21,804 20.2 12 22,387 
			 Cheshunt Minor Injuries Unit — — — 28.7 19 14,324 
			 The Riverside Clinic — — — — — — 
			 Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 78.2 64 72,426 75.4 61 76,659 
		
	
	
		
			 Bedford Hospital NHS Trust 79.7 60 55,534 70.8 54 58,404 
			 Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 103.1 73 67,822 73.4 60 74,306 
			 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust 61.8 52 53,652 63.4 53 54,978 
			 Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 103.7 94 87,448 94.7 82 90,335 
			 Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust 55.0 46 71,410 62.4 53 73,348 
			 Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 80.2 71 82,280 74.4 62 85,142 
			 James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 50.2 35 66,526 56.2 42 67,305 
			 Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust 71.1 60 62,505 84.7 75 73,647 
			 West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust 56.8 46 53,183 62.5 46 58,688 
			 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 74.9 65 86,210 73.8 62 90,064 
			 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 74.2 62 99,448 81.5 75 101,252 
			 Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust 89.3 80 63,782 81.4 70 66,224 
			 Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust 80.5 54 26,745 142.7 126 36,348 
			 The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 55.8 36 72,670 60.8 48 83,303 
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 99.8 72 102,918 99.7 71 101,853 
			 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust 74.0 60 72,542 78.4 62 96,386 
			 Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust — — — 27.6 20 7,606 
			 Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust — — — — — — 
			 Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre 
		
	
	
		
			 The mean and median duration (in minutes) to departure in Accident and Emergency departments for 2009-10 to 2012-13 for providers in the East of England SHA 
			  2009-10 2010-11 
			 Provider Mean duration to departure Median duration to departure Duration to departure denominator Mean duration to departure Median duration to departure Duration to departure denominator 
			 Suffolk PCT — — — 31.8 26 5,207 
			 Suffolk Community Healthcare HQ — — — — — — 
		
	
	
		
			 Fryatt Hospital — — — — — — 
			 Clacton Hospital — — — — — — 
			 Cheshunt Minor Injuries Unit — — — — — — 
			 The Riverside Clinic — — — 44.0 38 12,797 
			 Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 124.1 115 89,494 142.4 137 88,527 
			 Bedford Hospital NHS Trust 129.1 120 62,285 139.7 134 63,541 
			 Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 151.6 147 60,726 152.1 154 63,860 
			 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust 122.1 115 59,584 145.4 139 51,834 
			 Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 164.1 153 89,933 188.7 177 88,072 
			 Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust 142.1 135 71,453 147.9 144 72,135 
			 Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 129.6 122 68,540 149.4 138 71,771 
			 James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 126.9 115 64,140 130.7 114 65,665 
			 Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust 146.2 144 55,445 144.2 139 60,857 
			 West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust 134.5 126 48,123 129.7 120 51,942 
			 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 156.1 157 90,356 159.7 161 93,537 
			 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 131.6 125 92,264 134.9 130 95,862 
			 Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust 148.0 149 73,808 161.5 158 74,969 
			 Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust 128.6 116 35,256 122.9 114 36,682 
			 The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 142.2 145 79,893 147.6 150 81,207 
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 122.9 110 107,208 139.0 122 117,932 
			 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust 125.7 118 142,944 133.7 125 141,279 
			 Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust — — — — — — 
			 Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust — — — — — — 
		
	
	
		
			  2011-12 2012-13 
			 Provider Mean duration to departure Median duration to departure Duration to departure denominator Mean duration to departure Median duration to departure Duration to departure denominator 
			 Suffolk PCT 30.2 25 6,744 29.1 25 3,549 
			 Suffolk Community Healthcare HQ — — — 34.3 30 2,812 
			 Fryatt Hospital 39.3 31 5,581 41.7 31 5,475 
			 Clacton Hospital 44.9 37 21,814 46.0 37 22,407 
			 Cheshunt Minor Injuries Unit — — — 57.8 50 14,333 
			 The Riverside Clinic — — — — — — 
			 Southend University Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 140.6 137 88,193 142.2 131 89,334 
			 Bedford Hospital NHS Trust 143.1 136 65,561 143.5 131 65,778 
			 Luton and Dunstable Hospital NHS Foundation Trust 161.7 162 71,677 139.6 143 78,318 
			 The Queen Elizabeth Hospital, King's Lynn, NHS Foundation Trust 147.5 140 53,659 152.1 141 54,998 
			 Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 192.8 187 89,520 195.6 187 93,123 
			 Colchester Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust 141.4 132 72,192 149.8 144 74,812 
			 Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 156.7 158 86,150 157.0 156 89,645 
			 James Paget University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 140.4 124 67,130 142.0 135 67,305 
			 Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust 146.9 142 62,499 155.9 153 73,639 
			 West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust 125.3 115 55,676 147.7 142 59,209 
			 Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 163.4 166 97,452 164.8 169 98,720 
			 Norfolk and Norwich University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust 142.6 136 99,450 148.2 145 101,258 
			 Mid Essex Hospital Services NHS Trust 157.0 151 77,138 154.8 145 79,992 
			 Hinchingbrooke Health Care NHS Trust 135.7 127 37,411 150.8 151 37,559 
			 The Princess Alexandra Hospital NHS Trust 166.1 161 78,331 150.1 143 86,169 
			 West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust 130.4 119 119,890 136.5 122 122,485 
			 East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust 146.8 137 134,162 152.5 146 124,092 
			 Hertfordshire Community NHS Trust — — — 58.4 51 7,619 
			 Cambridgeshire Community Services NHS Trust 42.8 36 32,231 47.6 40 32,003 
			 Source: Hospital Episode Statistics (HES), Health and Social Care Information Centre

Ambulance Services: North West

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent by North West Ambulance Service on private ambulances in 2013; which providers were used and on how many occasions; and what amount was paid to each such provider.

Jane Ellison: Information on the use of private ambulances is not collected centrally. This is a matter for the local national health service. As such, the hon. Member may wish to approach the chief executive of North West Ambulance Service NHS Trust, which might hold some relevant information.

Ambulance Services: South East

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how much was spent by the South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Trust on private ambulances in 2013; which providers were used; on how many occasions; and what amount was paid to each provider.

Jane Ellison: The information requested is not collected centrally. I would encourage my right hon. Friend to contact South East Coast Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust directly to obtain this information.

Autism

Grahame Morris: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to include autism in future versions of the Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework.

Norman Lamb: The Department is committed to working with local government to identify the most important outcomes for people with autism. Subject to work on the data collections required to support any new measure, we are looking to include a new measure on autism in a future Adult Social Care Outcomes Framework.

Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements

Michael Crockart: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will take steps to protect members of the public who go online to obtain a European Health Insurance Card and are misled into paying a non-government internet site for help in securing such a card despite it being available through the Government website free of charge.

Jane Ellison: Following a request from my Department the Office of Fair Trading reviewed third party websites offering to check European health insurance card (EHIC) applications for a fee. They concluded that such sites are not, in their view, illegal, provided they make clear the card can be obtained free of charge from the NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA).
	Nevertheless, the Government is working closely with the Government Digital Service, NHSBSA and other key stakeholders, such as search engine providers, in order to explore options for limiting the use of such websites and thereby help avoid unnecessary expense for people wishing to apply for the EHIC.

Health Services: Reciprocal Arrangements

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many complaints (a) his Department and (b) the National Health Service have received about websites that charge a fee to those applying for a European health insurance card in the past 12 months.

Jane Ellison: In the 12 months to 1 February 2014 the Department received 61 letters either commenting upon, or expressing concern about, websites that charge a fee for processing applications for a European health insurance card. The NHS Business Services Authority received 275 comments on this issue in the period from 19 December 2013 to 31 January 2014 as they did not start collecting such data until late last year.
	The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) investigated the deceptive selling of online Government services and found that most websites they looked at did include a statement explaining the nature of the service provided and disclaiming any official status or affiliation with the Government. The OFT decided that there was insufficient evidence of breaches of consumer protection legislation to warrant formal enforcement action.

Heart Diseases

John Glen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will request the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence to issue guidelines for the treatment of cardiomyopathy.

Norman Lamb: The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) has published a range of guidance on cardiovascular conditions, including a clinical guideline and quality standard on chronic heart failure and a clinical guideline on ‘chest pain of recent onset’, both of which contain guidance relating to cardiomyopathy.
	NICE will also be developing quality standards and associated clinical guidelines on risk assessment of modifiable cardiovascular risk factors and acute heart failure.
	NHS England now commissions clinical guidelines from NICE. We understand that NHS England has no plans to ask NICE to develop guidance specifically on cardiomyopathy.

Hospital Beds: Sussex

Nicholas Soames: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many beds in the Brighton and Sussex University Hospitals NHS Trust have been occupied by patients affected by delays in discharge in each of the last 12 months; and if he will make a statement.

Jane Ellison: Information on delayed transfers of care is not available in the format requested.
	Information is available on the total delayed days during each month for all patients delayed throughout the month and is published on the NHS England website:
	http://www.england.nhs.uk/statistics/statistical-work-areas/delayed-transfers-of-care/
	The information is reproduced here for ease of reference.
	
		
			 Total delayed days 
			  Period NHS Social Care Both Total 
			 2012-13 January 587 123 0 710 
			 2012-13 February 325 151 0 476 
			 2012-13 March 720 150 0 870 
			 2013-14 April 723 160 0 883 
			 2013-14 May 557 139 0 696 
			 2013-14 June 504 163 0 667 
			 2013-14 July 424 175 0 599 
			 2013-14 August 418 300 0 718 
			 2013-14 September 495 170 0 665 
			 2013-14 October 505 226 0 731 
			 2013-14 November 464 200 0 664 
			 2013-14 December 482 182 0 664 
			 Note: This table sets out the number of delayed days experienced in 2013, and specifies whether the delayed days were attributable to the NHS or to Social Care.

Hospitals: Waiting Lists

Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps he is taking to ensure that all waiting times in hospitals are correctly recorded.

Jane Ellison: It is crucial that all reporting is accurate and the Department is working with NHS England, Monitor and the NHS Trust Development Authority to make sure hospitals get the support they need to get reporting right.

Mental Health Services

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health pursuant to the answer of 23 January 2014, Official Report, columns 276-7W, on mental health services, what the key performance indicators for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies programme were in each year since their introduction.

Norman Lamb: The key performance indicators for the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) programme in each year since their introduction were, as follows:
	KPI 1: The number of people who have depression and/or anxiety disorders (taken from the Psychiatric Morbidity Survey);
	KPI 2: The number of people who have been diagnosed with depression and/or anxiety disorders. (This item ceased collection Quarter 1 2009/10 due to identified issues of quality and utility of this data item);
	KPI 3a: The number of people who have been referred for psychological therapies during the reporting quarter;
	KPI 3b: The number of active referrals who have waited more than 28 days from referral to first treatment/first therapeutic session (at the end of the reporting quarter);
	KPI 4: The number of people who have entered psychological therapies (i.e. had their first therapeutic session) during the reporting quarter;
	KPI 5: The number of people who have completed treatment (minimum two treatment contacts) during the reporting quarter, broken down by age and sex;
	KPI 6a: The number of people who are "moving to recovery" (of those who have completed treatment, those who at initial assessment achieved "caseness" and at final session did not) during the reporting quarter;
	KPI 6b: The number of people who have completed treatment not at clinical caseness at initial assessment;
	KPI 7: The number of people moving off sick pay or benefits during the reporting quarter;
	KPI 8: The number of high intensity trainees (at the end of the reporting quarter);
	KPI 9: The number of low intensity trainees (at the end of the reporting quarter);
	KPI 10: The number of high intensity trained staff (at the end of the reporting quarter);
	KPI 11: The number of low intensity trained staff (at the end of the reporting quarter); and
	KPI 12: The number of supervisors (at the end of the reporting quarter).
	KPIs 8-12 were discontinued because of the quality of reporting. A decision was made to collect the information direct from strategic health authorities who were commissioning the information.
	Further to my written answer on 23 January 2014, Official Report, columns 276-7W, on mental health services, the new IAPT Dataset Reports, which have been in operation since April 2013, do contain information broken down by age and gender. The data are presented in the following tables:
	
		
			 Numbers of people being referred for treatment under 18 years of age in 2012-13 
			  People Referred 
			 2012-13: Quarter 1 (January to March) 3,390 
			 2012-13: Quarter 2 (April to May) 3,505 
		
	
	
		
			 Numbers of men being referred for treatment 
			  People Referred 
			 2012-13: Quarter 1 (January to March) 86,110 
			 2012-13: Quarter 2 (April to May) 93,239 
		
	
	
		
			 Numbers of women being referred for treatment 
			  People Referred 
			 2012-13: Quarter 1 (January to March) 151,500 
			 2012-13: Quarter 2 (April to May) 162,462 
			 Source: HSIC IAPT Data Set reports

Transplant Surgery: Bone Marrow Disorders

Chris Ruane: To ask the Secretary of State for Health 
	(1)  if he will create a seamless national care pathway for patients recovering from a bone marrow transplant;
	(2)  what plans he has to adopt national guidelines on care and its provision for people recovering from a bone marrow transplant;
	(3)  what steps he is taking to help patients return to an active life after a bone marrow transplant; and if he will class this as a key health outcome;
	(4)  what steps he is taking to provide support for (a) patients receiving a bone marrow transplant and (b) their families.

Jane Ellison: NHS England has service specifications to support its work around transplantation and to ensure the equitable and consistent commissioning of specialised care. NHS England is committed to working with other commissioners involved in the pathway of care for bone marrow transplantation patients.
	NHS England has signalled the importance of access to late effects services, for people recovering from bone marrow transplants, through their inclusion in the service specifications in place to ensure equitable and consistent commissioning of specialised care. The Blood and Marrow Transplant Clinical Reference Group (BMT CRG) are continuing to review the service specification and any significant changes will be consulted upon further.
	Helping people to recover from episodes of ill-health or following injury is one of the NHS Outcomes Domains relevant to bone marrow transplantation. The CRG will consider this and other outcome measures as part of the next review of the service specification. Through its direct commissioning function, NHS England aims to deliver improvements for populations and individuals as set out in the Outcomes Framework. While the priority of BMT is to prevent people from dying prematurely, enhancing the quality of life of patient's post-transplant is also very important.
	NHS England recognises that BMT is a complex treatment for a range of complex conditions which affect not only the patient, but their families too. The BMT CRG includes the voices of carers to ensure policy that is developed reflects these issues. NHS England will work with other commissioners, through the CRG and other partnerships, to continue to support the availability of appropriate family support services.

EDUCATION

Further Education: Finance

Liam Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many 18 year olds in further education are affected by reductions in funding; and what proportion of these students are pursuing vocational studies.

Matthew Hancock: These data are contained in the impact assessment published here:
	http://bit.ly/JUPOFa

Further Education: Yorkshire and the Humber

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many people in (a) Barnsley Central constituency and (b) Yorkshire and the Humber will be affected by the reduction in funding for 18 year olds announced by the Education Funding Agency.

Matthew Hancock: There are 100 students aged 18 who are affected by the reduction in funding who live in Barnsley Central.
	There are 6,990 18-year-old students who are affected by the reduction in funding who live in Yorkshire and Humber.
	Data are based on the 2012/13 R14 Individualised Learner Record, the latest available full year of data. Data refers to 18-year-old non-high needs students on full time (540+ hours) programmes in a further education institution (GFE Colleges, sixth form colleges and commercial and charitable providers). This will not include any students on apprenticeship provision. Students who live in Barnsley Central constituency and the Yorkshire and Humber region do not necessarily study there.

Kings Science Academy

David Ward: To ask the Secretary of State for Education pursuant to the answer of 6 January 2014, Official Report, column 97W, on Kings Science Academy, on which grounds the decision was taken not to request and then publish a copy of the report made to Action Fraud on 25 April 2013.

Edward Timpson: I refer the hon. Member to the reply given on 29 November 2013, Official Report, column 476W, to the hon. Member for Cardiff West (Kevin Brennan), in which the Security Minister explained that these reports are confidential.
	West Yorkshire Police must be allowed to complete their investigation into matters at Kings Science Academy and make their judgments about referrals to the Crown Prosecution Service without information that might be relevant to their case being put into the public domain.

Private Education: Offences against Children

Tom Watson: To ask the Secretary of State for Education how many reports of child abuse in independent schools have been raised by hon. Members with his Department in the last 12 months.

Edward Timpson: No initial reports of child abuse in independent schools have come to the Department for Education from hon. Members. We have had correspondence from four hon. Members about allegations of abuse in the last 12 months, but in each instance the Department had already been notified by another source and was taking action.

Schools: Finance

Jeremy Browne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education what the level of Government spending on schools in England was in current prices in each year since 1984.

David Laws: Revenue per pupil funding for schools in England from financial years 1984-85 to 2012-13 is shown in tables 1 to 3, and total capital funding for schools is shown in table 4.
	Per pupil figures are shown in real terms in 2012-13 prices, using December 2013 GDP deflators, and also in cash terms.
	Table 1 shows revenue funding for financial years 1984-85 to 1993-94. Comparable funding per pupil figures for this period against more recent years are not available so expenditure in schools is shown instead.
	
		
			 Table 1 
			 £ 
			 Financial year Real terms-per pupil expenditure in schools-England average1 Cash terms-per pupil expenditure in schools-England average 
			 1984-85 2,145 922 
			 1985-86 2,184 989 
			 1986-87 2,385 1,110 
			 1987-88 2,531 1,242 
			 1988-89 2,603 1,360 
			 1989-90 2,661 1,485 
			 1990-91 2,710 1,620 
			 1991-92 2,757 1,749 
			 1992-93 2,871 1,857 
			 1993-94 2,830 1,866 
			 1 The figures cover net institutional (or school-based) expenditure including teachers and other staff pay, premises and equipment etc. but exclude other items including local authority administration and other central services such as home to school transport. 
		
	
	Table 2 shows per pupil funding to local authorities for financial years 1994-95 to 2005-06, based on standard spending assessment (SSA)/education formula share (EFS) allocations for pupils aged 3 to 15.1
	1 The SSA is the name of the funding system prior to 2003, when it became the EFS.
	
		
			 Table 2 
			 £ 
			  Per pupil funding to local authorities-England average 
			 Financial year Real terms Cash terms 
			 1994-95 3,367 2,247 
			 1995-96 3,183 2,178 
			 1996-97 3,097 2,178 
			 1997-98 3,285 2,352 
			 1998-99 3,406 2,485 
			 1999-2000 3,593 2,673 
			 2000-01 3,922 2,938 
			 2001-02 4,137 3,184 
			 2002-03 4,276 3,367 
			 2003-04 4,499 3,612 
			 2004-05 4,671 3,853 
			 2005-06 4,919 4,132 
		
	
	Table 3 shows per pupil funding to local authorities for financial years 2006-07 to 2012-13. This includes Dedicated Schools Grant (DSG) allocations, the pupil premium and other schools related grants, eg school standards grant, school standards grant (personalisation) and standards fund, for pupils aged 3 to 15. Most of the additional grants were mainstreamed into the DSG in 2011-12.
	Because of changes to the funding mechanism following the introduction of the DSG in 2006-07, per pupil funding figures are not comparable with previous years. To provide a baseline comparison for 2006-07 DSG, we have isolated the equivalent funding from EFS allocations in 2005-06 and included this in the table.
	The figures for 2011-12 and 2012-13 are consistent with the 2010 spending review which said that:
	'Underlying per pupil funding [in the 5 to 16s school budget] will be maintained in cash terms'.
	
		
			 Table 3 
			 £ 
			  Per pupil funding to local authorities-England average 
			 Financial year Real terms Cash terms 
			 2005-06 (baseline) 4,708 3,955 
			 2006-07 4,861 4,200 
			 2007-08 5,065 4,487 
			 2008-09 5,146 4,687 
			 2009-10 5,222 4,887 
			 2010-11 5,356 5,143 
			 2011-12 5,260 5,169 
			 2012-13 5,245 5,245 
		
	
	Table 4 shows the Department for Education's total schools capital allocations since financial year 1984-85. The figures are shown in real terms in 2012-13 prices, using December 2013 GDP deflators, and also in cash terms. They exclude PFI credit allocations.
	
		
			 Table 4 
			 £ million 
			  Total capital allocations 
			 Financial year Real terms Cash terms 
			 1984-85 754 324 
			 1985-86 724 328 
		
	
	
		
			 1986-87 705 328 
			 1987-88 695 341 
			 1988-89 861 450 
			 1989-90 803 448 
			 1990-91 939 561 
			 1991-92 958 608 
			 1992-93 1,065 689 
			 1993-94 919 606 
			 1994-95 918 613 
			 1995-96 913 625 
			 1996-97 971 683 
			 1997-98 1,024 733 
			 1998-99 1,398 1,020 
			 1999-2000 1,479 1,100 
			 2000-01 2,336 1,750 
			 2001-02 2,471 1,902 
			 2002-03 3,073 2,420 
			 2003-04 4,127 3,313 
			 2004-05 4,640 3,828 
			 2005-06 5,137 4,315 
			 2006-07 5,357 4,629 
			 2007-08 5,797 5,135 
			 2008-09 5,872 5,349 
			 2009-10 6,095 5,704 
			 2010-11 7,201 6,915 
			 2011-12 5,147 5,058 
			 2012-13 4,502 4,502

JUSTICE

Care Homes: Fees and Charges

Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will bring forward legislative proposals to clarify the position under the Human Rights Act 1998 of people paying for their own care in care homes.

Damian Green: The Government does not believe that legislation is necessary as the position is already clear. Where such care is publicly arranged, its provision is already subject to the Human Rights Act. However, the Human Rights Act is not intended to apply directly to purely private arrangements.
	Extending the Human Rights Act to cover people paying for their own care would not make providers treat those they care for with any more dignity and respect than they already should. People with private care have rights and protections under current law.

Crime: Victims

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many people were injured during non-National Crime Recording Standard offences other than motoring offences in the last year for which data are available;
	(2)  how many people were injured during non-National Crime Recording Standard motoring offences in the last year for which data are available.

Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice is responsible for information pertaining to court outcomes and pre-court disposals such as cautions, and as such holds no data on injuries to people during non-National Crime Recording Standard offences, whether a motoring offence or a non-motoring offence as they may or may not have been reported to the relevant authorities.

Domestic Violence

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will take steps to amend the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme to include greater use of restorative justice.

Jeremy Wright: The delivery of the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme (IDAP) is in the process of being phased out and replaced by a newly developed and accredited programme for perpetrators of domestic violence, the Building Better Relationships (BBR) programme. BBR has already been implemented throughout a number of probation trusts, replacing its predecessors, IDAP and the Community Domestic Violence Programme. There are therefore no plans to further develop or adapt the Integrated Domestic Abuse Programme.
	BBR does not include the use of restorative justice. We do not believe that victims should be automatically precluded from taking part in restorative justice on the basis of the crime committed against them. Restorative justice may be suitable for any offence provided both the victim and offender consent and have been carefully assessed by a trained restorative justice facilitator. However, restorative justice is not often used in cases of domestic violence due to the risk of harm to the victim. If a victim of domestic abuse requests restorative justice then it will require very careful consideration by an experienced facilitator. The safety of the victim is paramount.

European Commission

Gareth Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice if he will set out his Department's priorities for discussions with the European Commission over their 2014 Work Programme; and if he will make a statement.

Shailesh Vara: I refer the hon. Member to the answer given to him on 29 January 2014, Official Report, column 625W, by the Minister for Europe, my right hon. Friend the Member for Aylesbury (Mr Lidington).

G4S

Keith Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many contracts have been awarded by his Department to G4S since 1 January 2013;
	(2)  how many contracts his Department has awarded to SERCO since 1 January 2013.

Jeremy Wright: We have announced plans to ensure a smooth transition from Serco and G4S to new suppliers on our electronic monitoring contracts. Other than these transitional arrangements, the Ministry of Justice has not awarded any new contracts to G4S or Serco during the period in question.

National Offender Management Service

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many prison officers taking voluntary early departure since May 2010 have been subsequently re-employed by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) since 1 October 2013; how much severance pay those officers received in total; how much severance pay was repaid to NOMS; and what proportion of the severance pay received by such officers has been paid back to his Department for their subsequent rehire.

Jeremy Wright: There were no prison officers who took voluntary early departure since May 2010, that have been subsequently re-employed by the National Offender Management Service (NOMS) between 1 October 2013 and 30 November 2013. No such pay was therefore either paid or repaid.
	Figures for December 2013 are compiled a few weeks after the end of the month and are currently not available.

Offenders: Foreign Nationals

Andrew Percy: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many foreign nationals were convicted of criminal offences committed in the UK in each of the last five years.

Jeremy Wright: The Ministry of Justice Court Proceedings Database does not record the nationality of offenders sentenced for criminal offences.
	However, we can provide prison statistics for England and Wales which show the number of foreign national receptions over the last five years.
	All foreign national offenders sentenced to custody are referred to the Home Office for them to consider deportation at the earliest possible opportunity.
	
		
			 Foreign national sentenced receptions, January 2009 to September 2013, England and Wales 
			  Total 
			 2009 12,409 
			 2010 (April to December1) 9,518 
			 2011 12,556 
			 2012 11,996 
			 1 Due to data quality January to March 2010 is unavailable. 
		
	
	Reducing the FNO population is a top priority for this Government. We are working hard to reduce the flow of FNOs into our prison system and increase the number of FNOs removed from the UK through Prisoner Transfer Agreements (PTAs); the Early Removal Scheme (ERS) and Tariff Expired Removal Scheme (TERS). The Home Office is co-ordinating an action plan to increase FNO removals and has introduced an Immigration Bill to tighten up the grounds for appeal against removal.

Prison Sentences

Philip Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to the answer of 9 October 2013, Official Report, column 308W, on prison sentences, if he will provide a gender breakdown of the figures contained in Table 3.

Jeremy Wright: Tough sentences are available to the independent judiciary who decide the sentences for individual criminals based on the full facts of the case.
	Defendants are now more likely to be convicted for committing crime and sent to prison for longer than they were a decade ago. In addition criminals convicted since 2010 are more likely to receive an immediate custodial sentence, both overall and for a first time offence.
	Table 1 shows the number of offenders sentenced to an immediate custodial sentence for their first offence in England and Wales, by offence type, year and gender.
	
		
			 Table 1: Number of first time offenders1 who received immediate custody for their first offence in England and Wales by offence type and gender2, 2008-12 
			  2008 2009 2010 
			 Offence type No. of the first time offenders No. of the first offenders sentenced to immediate custody % No. of the first time offenders No. of the first offenders sentenced to immediate custody % No. of the first time offenders No. of the first offenders sentenced to immediate custody % 
			 Males          
			 Violence against the person 16,788 1,111 6.6 14,669 1,124 7.7 12,965 996 7.7 
			 Sexual offences 3,018 984 32.6 2,892 1,009 34.9 3,112 1,079 34.7 
			 Burglary 3,579 113 3.2 3,209 182 5.7 2,788 199 7.1 
			 Robbery 1,326 298 22.5 1,345 286 21.3 1,487 334 22.5 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 25,776 478 1.9 23,302 546 2.3 20,333 557 2.7 
			 Fraud and forgery 7,872 2,438 31.0 6,885 2,011 29.2 6,361 1,554 24.4 
			 Criminal damage 4,514 56 1.2 3,581 88 2.5 2,748 59 2.1 
			 Drug offences 20,293 1,062 5.2 17,785 1,044 5.9 17,437 1,054 6.0 
			 Other Indictable offences 8,177 1,081 13.2 7,759 960 12.4 7,823 1,005 12.8 
			 Indictable motoring offences 1,325 97 7.3 1,137 99 8.7 1,063 87 8.2 
			 Summary offences excluding motoring 76,295 289 0.4 67,614 271 0.4 59,940 297 0.S 
			 Summary motoring offences 31,989 167 0.5 28,274 151 0.5 24,035 112 0.5 
			 Unknown 0 0 - 0 0 - 1 1 - 
			           
			 Females          
			 Violence against the person 5,720 142 2.5 5,103 150 2.9 4,548 161 3.5 
			 Sexual offences 115 35 30.4 132 40 30.3 87 19 21.8 
			 Burglary 516 19 3.7 421 14 3.3 372 14 3.8 
			 Robbery 212 22 10.4 178 18 10.1 154 16 10.4 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 22,589 205 0.9 21,989 203 0.9 16,570 219 1.3 
			 Fraud and forgery 5,011 685 13.7 4,788 533 11.1 4,674 470 10.1 
			 Criminal damage 1,054 13 1.2 786 16 2.0 672 11 1.6 
			 Drug offences 3,868 157 4.1 3,586 140 3.9 3,199 122 3.8 
			 Other indictable offences 2,011 148 7.4 1,904 187 9.8 1,781 184 10.3 
			 Indictable motoring offences 155 5 3.2 144 4 2.8 131 7 5.3 
			 Summary offences excluding motoring 29,581 59 0.2 25,747 51 0.2 22,580 49 0.2 
			 Summary motoring offences 8,564 16 0.2 8,360 16 0.2 7,529 8 0.1 
		
	
	
		
			  2011 2012 
			 Offence type No. of the first time offenders No. of the first offenders sentenced to immediate custody % No. of the first time offenders No. of the first offenders sentenced to immediate custody % 
			 Males       
			 Violence against the person 11,007 951 8.6 8,897 841 9.5 
			 Sexual offences 3,129 1,074 34.3 3,183 1,167 36.7 
			 Burglary 2,898 297 10.2 2,278 304 13.3 
		
	
	
		
			 Robbery 1,669 360 21.6 1,404 287 20.4 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 18,667 679 3.6 15,318 674 4.4 
			 Fraud and forgery 5,271 1,233 23.4 4,451 1,082 24.3 
			 Criminal damage 2,436 62 2.5 1,987 60 3.0 
			 Drug offences 16,823 966 5.7 15,572 905 5.8 
			 Other Indictable offences 6,849 989 14.4 5,615 775 13.8 
			 Indictable motoring offences 839 76 9.1 789 76 9.6 
			 Summary offences excluding motoring 54,166 277 0.5 48,275 251 0.5 
			 Summary motoring offences 21,977 92 0.4 19,878 68 0.3 
			 Unknown 0 0 - 0 0 - 
			        
			 Females       
			 Violence against the person 3,858 134 3.5 3,313 142 4.3 
			 Sexual offences 91 24 26.4 97 37 38.1 
			 Burglary 411 36 8.8 319 31 9.7 
			 Robbery 181 24 13.3 160 21 13.1 
			 Theft and handling stolen goods 12,311 214 1.7 9,516 203 2.1 
			 Fraud and forgery 4,007 397 9.9 3,203 347 10.8 
			 Criminal damage 552 26 4.7 504 20 4.0 
			 Drug offences 3,029 113 3.7 2,701 71 2.6 
			 Other indictable offences 1,472 184 12.5 1,241 150 12.1 
			 Indictable motoring offences 105 6 5.7 114 6 5.3 
			 Summary offences excluding motoring 21,525 42 0.2 18,630 44 0.2 
			 Summary motoring offences 7,013 7 0.1 6,630 6 0.1 
			 1 First time entrants are offenders who received their first reprimand, warning, caution or conviction for a recordable offence committed in England and Wales. Offenders who were resident outside of England and Wales at the time of their first conviction, caution, reprimand or warning are not counted in these statistics. Additionally, non-recordable offences (ie TV licence evasion, driving without insurance) are not recorded on the Police National Computer and therefore not counted. Where an offender was dealt with for multiple offences on the same occasion, the primary offence as recorded on the Police National Computer has been counted in the above table. 2 Offenders whose gender is unknown, have not been included in the above table. Source: Police National Computer, Ministry of Justice

Prisoners' Transfers

Rosie Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many Guittard applications were made for transfer to open conditions in each year since the judgment was handed down in 2009; and how many such applications were successful.

Jeremy Wright: The number of applications made by indeterminate sentence prisoners to the Secretary of State to consider transferring them to open conditions without first seeking the advice of the Parole Board (sometimes referred to as Guittard applications) has been formally recorded only since 2011. Applications will be approved only where the following criteria are met:
	the parole dossier must contain evidence that the prisoner has made significant progress in addressing all identified risk factors; and
	there must be a consensus amongst report writers that the prisoner is suitable and safe to be transferred to open conditions; and
	there had to be a clear benefit in transferring the prisoner to open conditions instead of awaiting a Parole Board review; and
	there are no areas of concern identified by report writers which would clearly benefit from further exploration by an oral hearing of the Parole Board.
	The number of applications made and approved in each year since then is shown in the table:
	
		
			  Guittard applications made Guittard applications approved 
			 2011 236 103 
			 2012 271 75 
			 2013 192 31 
		
	
	Applications are not necessarily approved in the same period in which they were made.
	These figures are based on unpublished management information held on the public protection database in the National Offender Management Service. They have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Prisoners: Foreign Nationals

Philip Hollobone: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice which three countries have the most foreign nationals in UK prisons; and what steps he is taking to return those offenders to secure detention in their own countries.

Jeremy Wright: The countries with most foreign nationals in UK prisons on 31 December 2013 are:
	1. Poland (938 prisoners)
	2. Irish Republic (779 prisoners)
	3. Jamaica (737 prisoners).
	Where appropriate we encourage voluntary transfers to Poland and the Irish Republic. Poland has derogation from accepting compulsory prisoner transfers under the EU Prisoner Transfer Arrangement (PTA) until December 2016. The Irish are yet to implement the EU PTA and given our close historic ties and the Common Travel Area the Home Office do not routinely consider Irish nationals for deportation. Jamaica is currently unwilling to sign a PTA but we seek appropriate opportunities to continue to raise the matter with them.
	In January this year we signed a compulsory PTA with Nigeria (7thlargest population of FNOs) and last year we signed a PTA with Albania (11th). We expect to see prisoner transfers to both these countries before the end of this year.
	In addition to the UK, 17 countries (including Romania, 4th largest FNO population) have now implemented the EU Prisoner Transfer Arrangement (PTA). We have forwarded 47 applications for transfer from the UK to other member states and completed 16 transfers under this mechanism to date. We expect to make many more this year.

Probation

Mike Wood: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what assessment he has made of the effect of prisoners' (a) proximity to homes and (b) contact with their families on (i) success of resettlement and (ii) reduction in reoffending.

Jeremy Wright: According to the results of the Surveying Prisoner Crime Reduction survey published in 20131, receiving family visits during a prison sentence, and returning to live with family after completion of the sentence were indirectly associated with reoffending. 48% of prisoners who returned to live with their family reoffended within a year, compared to 61% of prisoners who did not. 47% of prisoners who received family visits reoffended within a year, compared to 68% of prisoners who did not.
	A stable home is just one factor which contributes to reducing the likelihood of an offender reoffending upon release from prison. Having access to employment upon release is another. Our transforming rehabilitation proposals recognise that giving prisoners continuing support both in prison and in the community after their release means they are less likely to reoffend. We are therefore seeking to change the law to extend statutory supervision to all prisoners including those serving less than 12 months' imprisonment. We are also realigning the prison estate to enable most prisoners to be released from a prison in their home area in order to provide continuous 'through the gate' rehabilitative support. This will improve the rehabilitation of prisoners by ensuring they are released closer to home with the right support for their ongoing rehabilitation.
	1 Available at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/261620/re-offending-release-waves-1-3-spcr-findings.pdf

Probation

Sadiq Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what local targets each probation trust has.

Jeremy Wright: The information requested is published in Schedules 2 and 3 of probation trust contracts for 2013-14 at the following location:
	http://www.justice.gov.uk/downloads/information-access-rights/transparency-data/noms-sla-contracts/probation-contracts-1.zip
	It should be noted that the published contracts show the service delivery levels agreed for the start of the financial year 2013-14 and do not reflect any subsequent Notices of Change.
	Final targets will be published alongside performance outturns for 2013-14 in July.

Roads: Accidents

Nick Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice what guidance his Department has issued to the judiciary relating to road traffic fatality cases; and if he will make a statement.

Shailesh Vara: Guidance to the judiciary is produced independently of Government, by the Sentencing Council. This is in line with the principle that, while the Government decides what maximum penalties should be, the courts are responsible for deciding what sentence to impose within those limits.
	Severe maximum penalties are available for those who cause death through dangerous driving or under the influence of drink or drugs and statistics show that the overwhelming majority of those convicted for these offences receive lengthy custodial sentences.

Sentencing

Andy Slaughter: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  with reference to the changes announced by the Sentencing Council to the sentencing guidelines of 12 December 2013, what assessment he has made of the likely effect of such changes on the prison population;
	(2)  what estimate he has made of the potential effect of changes set out in the new sexual offences sentencing guideline published by the Sentencing Council on 12 December 2013 on the number of prisoners.

Jeremy Wright: When the Sentencing Council issued its definitive guideline on Sexual Offences on 12 December 2013 it also published, as it is required to do by the Coroners and Justice Act 2009, a resource assessment. That independent assessment of the likely effect of the guidelines on prison places and other resources has informed the Government's prison population planning.
	The Sentencing Council's assessment can be found at:
	http://sentencingcouncil.judiciary.gov.uk/docs/Final_ Resource_Assessment_Sexual_offences.pdf

Tribunals: Taxation

Shabana Mahmood: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice 
	(1)  how many people in HM Courts and Tribunals Service worked on tax tribunals in each year since 2010;
	(2)  how many cases investigated by HM Revenue and Customs were awaiting a tax tribunal hearing in the (a) first quarter, (b) second quarter, (c) third quarter and (d) fourth quarter of (i) 2010, (ii) 2011, (iii) 2012 and (iv) 2013;
	(3)  what the value of unresolved (a) first-tier and (b) upper-tier tax tribunal cases was in each year since 2010;
	(4)  what the average length of (a) first-tier and (b) upper-tier tax tribunal cases was in each year since 2010.

Shailesh Vara: Appeals against decisions made by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs relating to tax are heard by the First-tier Tribunal (Tax), administered by Her Majesty's Courts and Tribunals Service (HMCTS).
	Staff working within HMCTS regularly work across a number of different jurisdictions and many work in multi-jurisdictional centres. It is therefore not possible to supply the exact number of administrative staff employed to work in the tax jurisdictions of the First-tier and Upper Tribunals without checking the specific duties of each individual member of staff, which would be at disproportionate cost.
	The Ministry of Justice publishes statistical information on HMCTS Tribunals on a quarterly basis which can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/tribunals-statistics
	The statistics include data on the volume of outstanding cases for each of the periods requested. The outstanding cases figure includes all cases that have not yet received a final decision on their appeal and so will incorporate those that have had a hearing but not yet received a final decision.
	The outstanding caseload figures show that from 2009-10 to 2012-13 the number of cases in hand has increased by 50%. Almost 71% of the outstanding caseload at the end of September 2013 was made up of stayed cases—cases which are "on hold" pending the outcome of lead cases. It is, therefore, helpful to look at this information together with the data on appeals received and disposed. The number of cases disposed of by the First-tier Tribunal in 2012-13 was 14% higher than the previous year and some of these cases were ones which had been "on hold" pending the decision of a higher court.
	HMCTS do not collect data on the value of individual cases. We cannot therefore provide details on what the value of unresolved (a) First-tier Tribunal tax (b) Upper Tribunal tax cases were in each year since 2010.
	HMCTS does not hold data on the average length of first and upper tier cases. Instead, information is collected on the proportion of cases dealt with in specified time frames.

Written Questions

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice pursuant to his answer of 27 January 2014, Official Report, column 386W, on written questions, 
	(1)  whether the additional advice and assistance provided to Ministers by special advisers is restricted to specific policy areas;
	(2)  whether the additional advice and assistance provided to Ministers by special advisers is restricted to questions from specific, identified hon. Members.

Shailesh Vara: No. They provide advice and assistance to Ministers as required.

Youth Justice Board

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice how many meetings he has had with the Youth Justice Board; and what the average number of such meetings is per month.

Jeremy Wright: The Secretary of State for Justice and I meet regularly with officials to discuss youth justice, including with representatives of the Youth Justice Board.
	In addition, the chair and chief executive of the YJB and I meet on a quarterly basis to discuss the operation of the youth justice system.

DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER

High Speed 2 Railway Line

Cheryl Gillan: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister what instructions or guidance his Department has given to local enterprise partnerships about High Speed 2 and the presentation of their strategic economic plans.

Greg Clark: Guidance issued to local enterprise partnerships in July 2013 set out that strategic economic plans will be assessed on three core criteria: ambition and rationale, value for money, and delivery and risk. Plans should demonstrate how local areas can drive growth, and the priorities and themes should be determined locally. Local enterprise partnerships with a clear link to HS2 (for example those with planned stations) are likely to consider in their economic plans the actions that are relevant to maximising the benefits of their location, to demonstrate the ambition and rationale of their strategic economic plan.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Bovine Tuberculosis

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many TB vaccination trials for cattle his Department has cancelled in the last four years.

George Eustice: We are unaware of any vaccine trials that have been cancelled in the last four years.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what figures make up the £1 billion figure referred to on 10 October 2013, Official Report, column 281, regarding the cost of bovine TB to the UK over the next 10 years.

George Eustice: Forecast expenditure on our bovine TB programme for the current financial year is just over £99 million, excluding DEFRA policy development costs. That is after taking account of EU funding of around £12 million, which is as yet not guaranteed. Of this, £66 million is for operational, policy and laboratory work carried out by the Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency, including payments to private vets for TB testing. A further £23.5 million is for cattle compensation costs, net of salvage income. It is reasonable to expect that we will continue to incur similar, possibly greater, costs in future years unless tough new action is taken to combat the disease.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Roger Godsiff: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs pursuant to the answer of 17 January 2014, Official Report, column 706W, on bovine tuberculosis, how many detailed laboratory post-mortems of culled badgers were carried out; and what use will be made of the results.

George Eustice: 158 detailed post mortems were conducted on the culled badgers.
	The purpose of the post-mortem examination of carcases was to gather the required evidence to support an assessment of humaneness of controlled shooting. It was not to test badgers culled for infection with M.bovis as we already know around one-third of badgers to be infected in areas with a high incidence of the disease. The post-mortem information is being considered by the Independent Expert Panel, which will report in due course.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs 
	(1)  when he was made aware of the AHVLA SAM IT failure;
	(2)  when his Department became aware of the AHVLA SAM IT failure;
	(3)  whether (a) the AHVLA and (b) his Department was aware of failings with the SAM IT system (i) before the commencement of the Government's pilot badger culls and (ii) before these pilots were subsequently extended.

George Eustice: I was made aware of the nature of the problems and the implications for our monthly publication of bovine TB statistics on 14 January 2014, when the impact on the published bovine TB national statistics became clear. AHVLA first became aware in mid-December 2013 that there were possible discrepancies with the records of herds designated as not officially TB Free-well after the badger cull pilots had concluded. Subsequent investigations by AHVLA led to notification of DEFRA officials on 18 December 2013. The extent of the problems and full impact on the published statistics were not fully understood until mid-January 2014.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment his Department has made of the implications of the AHVLA SAM IT failure on the Bovine TB eradication strategy.

George Eustice: The problem identified only affects the reporting of TB statistics. There has been no impact on operational activities. This issue also does not affect the number of cattle slaughtered, which continues to be at an unacceptably high level.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the cause of the AHVLA SAM IT failure was.

George Eustice: The AHVLA is still investigating the issue and a number of root causes are being investigated.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what timeframe was allocated to Operational and User Acceptance Testing for the AHVLA SAM IT system; and whether this timeframe was adhered to.

George Eustice: Full Acceptance Testing took place. This involved System Acceptance Testing, Regression Testing (manual and automated) and User Acceptance Testing. Additionally, Performance and Operability Testing was undertaken. As the development was iterative the testing took place over an extended period totalling 11 months.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether the OAT and UAT phases for the AHVLA SAM IT system were replaced in favour of live testing methods.

George Eustice: Full testing was undertaken in advance of go-live. This involved System Acceptance Testing, Regression Testing (manual and automated) and User Acceptance Testing. Additionally, Performance and Operability Testing was undertaken.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether all the bovine TB figures transferred since the data migration from the Veterinary e-Business System (VeBus) to the AHVLA SAM IT system on 3 October 2011 will be reviewed.

George Eustice: Data was migrated from the Vetnet system (not VeBus) to the Sam IT System during September 2011. All migrated data was fully reconciled after migration. Since September 2011, there has been no further full system reconciliation, although some specific aspects of the TB data have been reviewed. We are undertaking a more comprehensive review as part of the current investigation.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs whether there was a system integration problem between the VeBus and AHVLA SAM IT systems.

George Eustice: VeBus and SAM were not integrated. There was a comprehensive data reconciliation between legacy systems and SAM following the migration of data from Vetnet.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs how many of the bTB new herd infection miscalculations have been caused by (a) human error due to manually inputting data into the system and (b) data duplicates due to the bTB cases being input manually into SAM and via VeBus.

George Eustice: The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency is still investigating the issue. There was no dual running of the systems, so data duplication did not occur.

Databases

Huw Irranca-Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps (a) his Department and (b) the contractor are taking to rectify the error with the AHVLA SAM IT system.

George Eustice: The Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency and our IT supplier have put considerable efforts into resolving the identified problem. Verification of the data and ensuring all reporting is correct has been a priority for all concerned.

National Wildlife Crime Unit

Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what progress he has made on allocating funding to the National Wildlife Crime Unit beyond March 2014.

George Eustice: holding answer 4 February 2014
	The Government takes the matter of wildlife crime very seriously and appreciates the important contribution the National Wildlife Crime Unit makes to tackling wildlife law enforcement both at home and internationally. Further to the Secretary of State for the Home Department, my right hon. Friend the Member for Maidenhead (Mrs May), announcement to the House last week about the Home Office's commitment to continue funding the Unit, I am delighted to announce that DEFRA and the Home Office will together be providing more than £500,000 of funding until 2016 to help secure the future of the Unit.

Wildlife: Smuggling

Nick Herbert: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what steps he is taking to tackle the illegal wildlife trade (a) domestically and (b) internationally.

George Eustice: holding answer 4 February 2014
	The alarming problem of increasing levels of rhino and elephant poaching and the illegal wildlife trade is a priority for this Government. We recognise the need to ensure that we provide a co-ordinated and effective response to tackle it. DEFRA has been working closely with a number of Departments across Whitehall to achieve this and we will, jointly with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, be hosting a high-level, inter-Governmental Conference in London on 13 February to galvanise the international community to take action to reduce poaching and trafficking. The Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, my right hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Mr Paterson) and the Secretary of State for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for Putney (Justine Greening), announced on 23 December 2013 a £10 million package to take concrete action to combat the illegal trade in wildlife.
	The UK has set out its commitment to eradicate illegal wildlife trade in a 'Commitment to Action', published today at:
	www.gov.uk/government/topical-events/illegal-wildlife-trade-2014

CABINET OFFICE

Buildings

Andrew Gwynne: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what the annual rent is for (a) 35 Great Smith Street and (b) Rosebery Court; and who the landlords are in each case.

Francis Maude: I refer the hon. Member to the answer I gave to him on 22 January 2014, Official Report, column 242W. We are unable to disclose this information due to commercial sensitivities.

Electronic Government

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office what 25 top priority digital projects the Government Digital Service is currently helping Departments design.

Nick Hurd: See information at the following link:
	https://www.gov.uk/transformation

Employment: Females

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many women have (a) entered and (b) left the labour market since 2004.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated February 2014
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question asking the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many women have (a) entered and (b) left the labour market since 2004. (186199)
	Estimates of employment are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The LFS is able to measure quarterly ‘flows’ of people entering and leaving employment however it is not possible to measure this over a longer period of time.
	Experimental statistics of labour market flows estimated from the LFS are published quarterly in Table X02 as part of the Labour Market Statistics release, available here:
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl= Labour+Market#tab-sum-pub

Part-time Employment: Females

Stephen Timms: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many women were classified as working part-time in each of the last five years.

Nick Hurd: The information requested falls within the responsibility of the UK Statistics Authority. I have asked the authority to reply.
	Letter from Glen Watson, dated February 2014
	As Director General for the Office for National Statistics, I have been asked to reply to your Parliamentary Question to ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many women were classified as working part-time in each of the last five years. 186196
	Estimates of employment are derived from the Labour Force Survey (LFS). The table shows estimates of the number of women in part-time employment between 2009 and 2013. An individual's part-time status is self-classified on the LFS.
	
		
			 Number of women in part-time employment September to November each year, 2009 to 2013 United Kingdom, seasonally adjusted 
			  Thousand 
			 2009 5,826 
			 2010 5,880 
			 2011 5,849 
			 2012 5,995 
			 2013 5,938 
			 Labour Force Survey (LFS) 
		
	
	Estimates of part-time employment by gender are published monthly in Table 3 of the Labour Market Statistical Bulletin, available here:
	http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/taxonomy/index.html?nscl= labour+Market#tab-sum-pub

Public Appointments

Fiona Mactaggart: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office how many public appointments his Department made in the last 12 months; how many such appointments are remunerated posts; what the level of such remuneration is; and how many people so appointed are (a) women and (b) men.

Francis Maude: The Government publishes details of diversity in public appointments across Departments.
	The latest list can be found at:
	https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/diversity-in-public-appointments
	Figures for 1 October 2013 to 31 March 2014 will be published later this year.

CULTURE MEDIA AND SPORT

Press: Regulation

Richard Drax: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport 
	(1)  what the salaries are for the members of the Recognition Panel established for the purpose of press regulation;
	(2)  what the key performance indicators are of the Recognition Panel for the purpose of press regulation; and what steps she plans to take to monitor the work and expenditure of that body;
	(3)  how much the Government (a) has spent and (b) plans to spend on creating the Recognition Panel for the purpose of press regulation;
	(4)  what contingency budget exists for the Recognition Panel established for the purpose of press regulation; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: The Recognition Panel is independent of the press industry and politicians. The Recognition Panel will determine its own procedures for conducting its business and discharging its functions under the Charter. It will be for the Board of the Recognition Panel to determine its annual budget for each financial year and, in doing so, ensure it achieves value for money. Further details of the Panel's funding arrangements can be found in Article 11 of the Royal Charter. Initial Public funding does not mean the Government can interfere in the decisions of the Board of the Recognition Panel. I understand the Commissioner for Public Appointments has appointed the Appointments Committee that will make the initial appointments to the Board of the Panel. The Charter provides that it is for the Board of the Recognition Panel to take decisions about the form the new body will take. Further information can be found on the Commissioner's website:
	http://publicappointmentscommissioner.independent.gov.uk/press-self-regulation/

Public Service Broadcasting

Harriet Harman: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport what recent assessment she has made of the levels of retransmission fees for public service broadcasters paying to have their content carried; what plans she has for a review of retransmission fees; and if she will make a statement.

Edward Vaizey: As made clear in “Connectivity, Content, Consumers: Britain's Digital Platform for Growth”, the Government wants to see zero net charges-where the fees for access to the main platforms (satellite, cable, DTT) and for public service channels (the BBC, ITV, C4 and C5) cancel each other out. This recognises that Platforms benefit from having must-see content distributed across their services, while broadcasters benefit from having access to mass market audiences.
	For cable, this outcome is achieved by section 73 of the Copyright, Design and Patents Act (COPA). This provision is presently the subject of litigation, as online services are relying on it to exploit PSB content, with no benefit flowing back to the PSB. We will launch a consultation on this issue once the outcome of the present litigation is known, before bringing forward legislative proposals as required.

Sports: Scholarships

Catherine McKinnell: To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport whether a decision has been made on the future of the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme and its funding after 2013-14.

Helen Grant: UK Sport funding provided to Sports Aid for the Talented Athlete Scholarship Scheme (TASS) is confirmed until September 2014. UK Sport and Sport England continue to work together on talent development in England, with the future funding of TASS under consideration.

INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Afghanistan

Julian Lewis: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development if she will list the funding streams her Department has to the Afghan government; what the purposes are for the funding in each case; what steps she is taking to ensure that such funds are used by the Afghans for the intended purposes; and if she will make a statement.

Justine Greening: DFID has two main funding streams to the Afghan Government: multilateral trust funds and our Strengthening Provincial Administration and Delivery (SPAD) programme.
	The World Bank-led Afghanistan Reconstruction Trust Fund supports the provision of basic services including health and education, while the Asian Development Bank-led Afghanistan Infrastructure Trust Fund supports major infrastructure projects designed to improve power generation and transport links. The World Bank and Asian Development Bank provide independent oversight and assurance to all donors that money is being used for its intended purpose.
	The SPAD programme supports the delivery of basic services in three provinces, including health and education. To ensure that funds are used for their intended purposes rigorous monitoring and evaluation arrangements have been put in place and an independent verification has recently been undertaken by the Independent Commission for Aid Impact.

Africa

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what discussions her Department has had with the US about the Power Africa Off Grid Energy Challenge.

Lynne Featherstone: DFID has held various discussions with counterparts in the US about Power Africa and other projects.

Re-employment

Lilian Greenwood: To ask the Secretary of State for International Development how many staff who have been made redundant or retired from her Department have subsequently been re-employed by her Department since May 2010.

Justine Greening: Three members of staff who have retired from DFID have subsequently been re-employed by DFID since May 2010. No members of staff who have been made redundant, have subsequently been re-employed by DFID since May 2010.
	The Government reformed the Civil Service Compensation Scheme (CSCS) in 2010 to reduce costs and to require the recovery of compensation payments where staff are dismissed and re-employed. This has led to savings of £2.2 billion from work force reduction in 2012-13, compared to 2009-10.
	The CSCS rules require that:
	Staff re-employed within 28 days of being made redundant have to repay their entire redundancy package;
	Staff re-employed within six months of being made redundant since December 2010 have to repay part of their compensation;
	Staff re-employed following retirement have their pension abated so that the total value of their pension and new salary are the same as their salary before retirement.
	The civil service does not operate a compulsory age retirement policy and has not done so since March 2010.